Dustbathing is a highly motivated natural behavior in pigs that serves important biological functions and whose chronic prevention in commercial systems represents a significant but often overlooked welfare deficit.
Dustbathing and wallowing welfare in pigs reflects the fundamental welfare cost of housing systems that prevent animals from performing behaviors with strong biological motivation. Unlike some farm animal behaviors that can be partially redirected to available alternatives, wallowing meets specific thermoregulatory needs that cannot be met by substrate manipulation alone in warm conditions. This gives wallowing welfare provision particular urgency during warm weather when multiple welfare dimensions converge in the same behavioral need.