Pen design that enables positive behavioral expression in pigs produces measurable welfare benefits and production advantages.
Pen design that actively promotes positive behavior represents an advance beyond pen design that merely prevents the worst welfare harms. The distinction is important: a pen that prevents tail biting through adequate space is better than one that causes it, but a pen that enables play, comfortable resting, foraging, and social interaction represents the highest welfare standard. Computer vision monitoring of pen utilization reveals how space is actually used by pigs — and can identify areas of pen design that fail to engage positive behavior. Building positive behavior promotion into pen design standards, rather than merely preventing negative welfare events, operationalizes the shift from welfare as absence of suffering to welfare as presence of positive states.