The drive for maximum reproductive efficiency in commercial pig production creates welfare costs for breeding sows through intensive reproductive schedules and associated health impacts.
Sow welfare in commercial production is increasingly compromised by genetic selection programs that prioritize litter size above the physical capacity of individual sows to support those litters. A hyperprolific sow producing 17-20 piglets per litter cannot nurse them all successfully; the excess must be fostered, and some inevitably die. The sow herself experiences the physical demands of nursing ever-larger litters with the same number of teats, compressing metabolic demand and body condition loss into each production cycle. This is a form of welfare harm built into the genetics of production — a systemic problem that individual husbandry improvements can ameliorate but cannot fully resolve. Breeding programs that balance litter size with maternal welfare — including teat number, body condition, and longevity traits — would produce sow populations with better individual welfare alongside adequate productivity.