Slaughterhouse welfare indicators provide a population-level assessment of pig welfare that can be traced back to farms, enabling data-driven identification of farms with welfare problems requiring improvement.
Slaughterhouse welfare data provides objective, population-level evidence of farm welfare that is harder to game than farm inspections. Tail bite lesions visible at slaughter indicate that tail biting occurred on farm - a welfare event involving pain and potentially prolonged suffering. High rates of skin lesions indicate fighting and aggression. Hernias and prolapses indicate health problems that may have gone untreated. Connecting slaughterhouse data to individual farms and requiring corrective action creates a powerful welfare improvement mechanism.