Moving beyond absence of suffering to measuring positive welfare states in pigs represents an important frontier in farm animal welfare science and certification.
Positive pig welfare assessment represents a paradigm shift from asking 'are these pigs suffering?' to 'do these pigs have good lives?' The difference is significant: a pig in a clean, uncrowded pen with adequate food may score reasonably on negative welfare indicators while scoring poorly on positive measures if the environment is barren and lacks play and exploration opportunity. Validated positive welfare indicators including play rates and ear posture allow farms to be assessed for quality of life rather than merely absence of obvious harm. This approach better captures the full welfare experience of highly intelligent pigs and is increasingly incorporated into advanced welfare certification schemes that want to genuinely guarantee good lives rather than merely adequate conditions.