Farm Animal Welfare

Pig Nutrition and Welfare Resilience

Pig nutrition quality affects welfare resilience, immune function and ability to cope with environmental and disease challenges.

Key Facts

Amino acid balance affects muscle development and immune function in pigs
Vitamin E and selenium supplementation improves immune response and welfare resilience
Adequate dietary zinc at weaning reduces post-weaning diarrhoea and stress
Fermented feeds improve gut health and welfare in weaners and growing pigs
Precision nutrition reduces waste while maintaining welfare-positive nutritional status

Welfare Considerations

Nutritional welfare is a foundational determinant of pig health and resilience. Well-nourished pigs cope better with environmental challenges, have stronger immune responses and show better welfare outcomes across all welfare domains.

What You Can Do

Support welfare standards requiring nutritional adequacy assessment alongside physical welfare indicators
Advocate for research into precision nutrition approaches improving welfare resilience
Choose pork from farms with documented nutritional management programmes