Feeding competition in group-housed pigs creates welfare inequality, with subordinate animals receiving inadequate nutrition while dominant pigs overconsume, affecting health and wellbeing across the hierarchy.
Feeding inequality in group-housed pigs represents a systematic welfare failure where the same management system produces vastly different welfare outcomes for different individuals based on social rank. Chronically underfed subordinate pigs experience persistent hunger, impaired immune function, and slower growth. Overconsumption by dominant pigs causes different welfare problems including obesity and associated health issues. System design that reduces feeding competition - through adequate feeder space, ad libitum access, or individual feeding technology - benefits all animals by reducing both the suffering of subordinates and the aggression that compromises dominant animals' environments.