Pigs frequently undergo painful procedures with inadequate pain management. Closing the gap between welfare science and farm practice is one of the most impactful available interventions.
Pig pain management is a gap between welfare science and farm practice with enormous scale implications. Millions of piglets undergo painful procedures annually without effective analgesia. The barriers are cost, time, and entrenched practice rather than technical difficulty — lidocaine and meloxicam are cheap and effective, and their use is technically straightforward. Legislative requirements for anesthesia exist in some jurisdictions but compliance is inconsistent. The welfare case for closing this gap is clear: pigs are sentient animals capable of experiencing pain, and routine procedures cause documented suffering that is preventable. Immunocastration offers a surgical-free alternative that eliminates the castration welfare problem entirely while addressing the boar taint issue that motivated the practice.