Scientific measurement of pig enrichment effectiveness is advancing, enabling evidence-based design of housing that genuinely improves welfare rather than just meeting regulatory minimums.
Moving from input-based regulations - 'provide straw' - to outcome-based assessment changes the welfare conversation fundamentally. An enrichment that meets regulation but fails to change behavior or positive welfare indicators has not achieved its purpose. The Welfare Quality protocol for pigs, developed across a decade of European research, provides a framework for assessing welfare across four domains: good feeding, good housing, good health, and appropriate behavior. Farms measured with this tool show wide variation even within the same regulatory framework.