Pig Welfare and Legacy Science | Animal Welfare Hub

The scientific legacy of pig welfare research provides the evidence base for current standards and identifies the foundations for future improvement.

Key Facts

Welfare Quality protocol development in the 2000s established validated welfare assessment tools
Research on pig cognition from Cambridge and other institutions transformed understanding of pig sentience
Research on tail biting root causes identified the enrichment and stocking solutions now in guidelines
Pain research using grimace scales provided the evidence base for analgesia recommendations
Longitudinal welfare studies revealed connections between early life and adult welfare outcomes

Welfare Considerations

Pig welfare science has built a substantial evidence base over three decades that now underpins practice and policy globally. The researchers, institutions, and funding bodies that invested in this science created a legacy of knowledge without which current welfare standards would lack their evidence foundation. Building on this legacy requires continued investment in welfare science, translation to practice, and application to the new challenges emerging from changing production systems.

What You Can Do

Celebrate the welfare scientists who built the evidence base for current standards
Support continued investment in welfare science to address emerging challenges
Share the science behind pig welfare standards to build understanding and support