High sow mortality and premature culling rates in commercial pig production indicate systemic welfare problems affecting breeding females who are often discarded after just 3-4 litters.
Sow mortality and short productive lives reflect the systemic welfare costs of pushing breeding females to physiological limits. Sows experiencing reproductive prolapses, lameness, and metabolic depletion suffer substantially before death or emergency slaughter. The expectation of high mortality as a production norm normalises preventable suffering. Genetic selection for extreme litter sizes without matching welfare management creates a welfare debt paid by individual sows. Lower intensity systems that allow sows longer, healthier productive lives demonstrate that commercial pig production need not involve the current level of premature death and suffering.