Real Welfare

In 2023, the pork sector council acted on clear messages from levy payers to amplify our work on marketing, exports and reputation (including educating younger consumers). As a result, we no longer fund or operate the Pig Health Scheme and Real Welfare programmes.

Through the Real Welfare scheme, more than 10 years of welfare outcome data was collected and analysed by statisticians.

The results were published in a number of reports summarising the findings. These reports are available on request, email: real.welfare@ahdb.org.uk

A more in-depth investigation of the Real Welfare data was also published in three peer-reviewed scientific papers, listed below: 

The ‘Real Welfare’ scheme: benchmarking welfare outcomes for commercially farmed pigs
Pandolfi, F., Stoddart, K., Wainwright, N., Kyriazakis, I. and Edwards, S.A., 2017. Animal, 11(10), pp.1816-1824. 

The “Real Welfare” scheme: Identification of risk and protective factors for welfare outcomes in commercial pig farms in the UK
Pandolfi, F., Kyriazakis, I., Stoddart, K., Wainwright, N. and Edwards, S.A., 2017. Preventive veterinary medicine, 146, pp.34-43.

The “Real Welfare” Scheme: Changes in UK Finishing Pig Welfare since the Introduction of Formal Welfare Outcome Assessment
Pandolfi, F., Barber, C. and Edwards, S., 2022. Animals, 12(5), p.607.