Gaining and maintaining interest: Recent advances in enrichment for pigs

Environmental enrichment for pigs is a popular research topic and has profound practical implications for pig welfare. However, there is a common misconception that just adding items into animals’ housing can be called enrichment, without careful consideration if the environmental modification is biologically meaningful for the animals and if their welfare has indeed improved. This chapter takes a reflective approach, introduces the background, and discusses some issues with enrichment studies and practical enrichment provision for pigs. Furthermore, we discuss suitable enrichment provisions for different age categories of pigs, e.g. piglets, weaners, finishers, sows, boars, etc., considering their biological needs at various stages. We do not provide a comprehensive literature review but focus on the most recent advances of the past 5 years since the last version of this book was published.