Positive welfare science identifies indicators of good life quality in pigs, moving beyond pain and disease metrics to include play, exploration, and positive social behaviors.
The shift toward positive welfare assessment in pig production represents an important conceptual advance beyond simple disease and mortality metrics. A pig free from disease but unable to express natural behaviors is not living a good life. Positive indicators like play, active exploration, and social bonding provide evidence of experiences worth having. Farm managers trained to recognize positive welfare indicators report improved motivation for welfare enhancement and better outcomes across multiple dimensions. Economic analysis suggests positive welfare pigs show improved production efficiency, reducing the perceived trade-off between welfare and productivity. Retail and consumer pressure for positive welfare evidence is creating market signals that reward producers investing in enrichment and social housing improvements.