Farm Animal Welfare

Pig Welfare Outcome Metric Standardization

Standardizing welfare outcome metrics for pigs enables international comparison and evidence-based standard setting.

Key Facts

Welfare Quality protocols provide internationally accepted pig welfare assessment frameworks
Body lesion scoring, tail lesion scoring, and coughing rates are validated outcome metrics
National pig health monitoring programs generate large welfare outcome datasets
Slaughterhouse data provides population-level welfare outcome information
Benchmarking against national averages motivates underperforming farms to improve

Welfare Considerations

Without standardized outcome metrics, it is impossible to compare pig welfare between farms, countries, or over time. Standardization enables the identification of best practice, setting of evidence-based targets, and measurement of progress toward welfare goals.

What You Can Do

Support adoption of Welfare Quality or equivalent protocols as national standards
Advocate for standardized welfare data collection requirements in certification schemes
Learn about international pig welfare measurement approaches and their applications