Group housing for pigs offers substantial welfare advantages over individual confinement but requires careful management to prevent aggression injuries, particularly around regrouping events.
Group housing for pigs provides welfare benefits that outweigh management challenges when properly designed. Social contact, play behavior, and expression of natural social repertoire are positive welfare contributors that isolated or individually housed pigs cannot experience. The main welfare challenge — aggression during regrouping — can be substantially reduced through stable group management (avoiding regrouping except at weaning), adequate space, environmental enrichment that distracts from aggression, and introduction during dark periods when activity is reduced. The welfare case for group housing over individual confinement is strong; the welfare case for stable versus frequently regrouped group housing is equally important.