Breeding programs increasingly incorporate health and welfare traits alongside production. Selecting for welfare-relevant genetics reduces inherent suffering across entire populations.
Pig genetics shape welfare outcomes at population scale. When breeders select purely for rapid growth and lean meat yield, they inadvertently select for animals with weaker skeletal systems, higher metabolic demands, and sometimes greater stress reactivity. Incorporating welfare traits - leg strength, disease resilience, feed efficiency, and temperament - into breeding indexes creates animals better suited to cope with production environments. The elimination of the stress gene from commercial pig populations demonstrates what genetic welfare improvement can achieve when the industry commits to it.