Understanding the behavioral and welfare consequences of early weaning in pigs and management strategies that reduce weaning-associated stress.
Weaning stress in pigs is a compounding welfare problem — the simultaneous removal of maternal contact, mixing with unfamiliar animals, transition to solid food, and movement to a new environment creates multiple concurrent stressors that overwhelm piglet coping capacity. The behavioral consequences — belly-nosing, aggression, and in some cases ear-biting — reflect behavioral needs that cannot be met in the weaner environment. Management strategies that minimize these stressors by keeping litter groups together, providing substrate to redirect oral behaviors, and ensuring comfortable, warm housing can significantly reduce the welfare impact of this unavoidable production stage. The most effective single welfare improvement — later weaning age — is also economically costly, creating a barrier that consumer and regulatory pressure is needed to overcome.