Respiratory disease is the leading cause of welfare impact and economic loss in UK pig farming. Enzootic pneumonia, PRRS and influenza cause chronic suffering that better management can prevent.
Chronic respiratory disease in pig farms causes sustained suffering that is easy to normalise as background noise in production records. A pig with enzootic pneumonia struggles to breathe under normal activity, cannot grow efficiently and spends more time resting. PRRS-positive herds have elevated abortion rates, stillbirths and post-weaning respiratory crises that represent welfare failures at scale. The welfare case for respiratory disease prevention aligns with the production case - healthier pigs grow better and require less antibiotic treatment. But achieving good respiratory health requires genuine investment in ventilation, biosecurity and health monitoring.