Identifying positive welfare indicators in pigs enables producers and auditors to assess whether pigs are thriving, not just surviving, in their production environment.
Positive welfare assessment for pigs represents a significant advance over the traditional focus on preventing the worst outcomes. A farm that avoids the most acute welfare failures — severe lameness, injuries, starvation — may still fail to provide conditions where pigs can experience genuinely good lives. Positive welfare indicators including play, exploration, and positive social interaction provide evidence that animals have not merely survived but have the opportunity to thrive. The practical challenge is making positive welfare assessment tractable for commercial auditing: time-limited farm inspections must capture behavioral data that reflects welfare state without requiring continuous observation. Tail posture is emerging as one of the most practical real-time positive welfare indicators — easy to assess visually during routine farm visits and sensitive to welfare state changes.