Advances in pig pain assessment tools are improving the ability of farmers and veterinarians to identify and treat suffering in farmed pigs.
Pig pain assessment represents a critical foundation for welfare improvement since pain that is not recognized cannot be treated. The development of validated grimace scales for pigs mirrors earlier work in mice, rats, and cats, giving farmers and veterinarians practical tools for systematic pain scoring. Importantly, these scales can be taught to farm workers who interact with animals daily, creating decentralized pain recognition capacity that a veterinarian-only approach cannot achieve. The automation of pain assessment through computer vision represents the next frontier, potentially enabling continuous monitoring of large pig populations rather than periodic manual assessments. The economic barriers to pain treatment in pig farming are lower than often assumed since effective analgesics cost only a few cents per animal, making the welfare improvement highly cost-effective. The main barrier is recognition, which validated assessment tools directly address.