Validated pig pain indicators enable early detection and treatment of painful conditions, improving welfare through timely intervention.
Pig pain indicator science has advanced considerably, providing validated assessment tools that enable more reliable identification of painful conditions than traditional behavioural observation alone. The Porcine Grimace Scale, validated across multiple research groups, provides a facial action-based pain assessment tool analogous to similar scales for other species. Its application in commercial settings is limited by assessor time and training requirements, but automated computer vision systems are being developed that could enable continuous monitoring. Lameness scoring represents the most practically applicable current tool — systematic herd lameness assessment provides welfare outcome data that both identifies treatment needs and benchmarks welfare status across time and between farms. The integration of multiple indicator types — behavioural, postural, facial, and cognitive — provides more reliable pain assessment than any single measure.