Post-mortem inspection of pigs at slaughter provides welfare data about conditions experienced during life, with outcome-based assessment identifying welfare problems on farms of origin.
Post-mortem welfare assessment at slaughter provides a unique window into the welfare history of pigs who can no longer speak for themselves. Tail bite lesions, skin wounds, and lung pathology document welfare failures during production that visual observation may have missed. Systematic collection and reporting of these outcomes creates accountability in the supply chain and enables targeted welfare improvement on high-risk farms. The welfare of future pigs on those farms is improved by interventions triggered by post-mortem data from previous cohorts. This retrospective welfare assessment represents an important complementary tool to on-farm assessment.