Scientific advances in pig pain recognition have transformed understanding of how pigs experience and express pain, with validated assessment tools now available for use in farm settings.
The science of pig pain recognition has advanced dramatically, moving from assumptions about pain capacity to validated tools that measure it. Pigs experiencing pain from disease, injury, or routine procedures show measurable facial expression changes, behavioural modifications, and physiological stress responses that trained observers and increasingly automated systems can detect. This knowledge creates both the ability to assess pain and a moral obligation to do so - knowing that pigs experience pain and choosing not to assess or treat it is no longer scientifically defensible. Pain scoring in routine pig health management is a natural next step following decades of research.