More than 1.49 billion pigs were slaughtered in 2024 for meat worldwide. Almost half these pigs are in China, where over 700 million pigs were slaughtered in 2024. The next largest pig producers in 2024 were the European Union (slaughtering almost 224 million pigs), United States of America (almost 130 million) and Brazil (over 58 million).

In the UK over 10.5 million pigs are slaughtered for meat annually and there are around 316 million breeding sows and gilts (young sows). Although pigs are still kept in backyards and free-range systems, particularly in many developing countries, over half the world’s pig meat is produced in intensive systems, with this increasing to more than 90% in North America and Western Europe.

Minimum conditions for the protection of pigs in the EU are set out in Council Directive 2008/120/EC. Since 1 January 2013, all holdings must keep sows and gilts in groups starting from four weeks post service to one week prior to farrowing, provide permanent access to manipulable material, and provide sufficient quantity of bulky or high-fibre food as well as high-energy food. All holdings should already comply with the general provisions for rearing pigs. In particular, attention should be paid to the following:

‘Pigs should have permanent access to a sufficient quantity of material to enable proper investigation and manipulation activities, such as straw, hay, wood, sawdust, mushroom compost, peat or a mixture of such, which does not compromise the health of the animals.’

‘Neither tail-docking nor the reduction of corner teeth must be carried out routinely but only when there is evidence that injuries to the sows’ teats or to other pigs’ ears or tails have occurred. Before carrying out these procedures, other measures shall be taken to prevent tail-biting and other vices, taking into account environment and stocking densities. For this reason, inadequate environmental conditions or management systems must be changed.’ Despite this, due to the difficulty in enforcing this, over 90% of pigs are still tail-docked in the EU, and tooth reduction is still commonly practiced.

Sow and Pig Higher Welfare Award