Sask Swine Welfare Research Group

We were featured on the Popular Pig Podcast: Dr. Yolande Seddon explores Canada's animal welfare science infrastructure, its vital ties to the pig industry, and how understanding pig behaviour drives better welfare in practice. Give it a listen!
popularpig.com/2025/09/11/r...

How does farrowing pen design shape pig welfare & performance? Dr. Yolande Seddon will share key insights applicable to both crate & free-farrowing systems at the 2025 Gestal Swine Summit in Lévis, Québec this fall. 🐷

Check out Manitoba Pork's Chop Talk podcast where Dr. Seddon discusses the NSERC Industrial Research Chair Program in Swine Welfare, along with future research we are currently developing! Listen to it here: open.spotify.com/episode/26lA...

A major collaborative effort reveals hair cortisol as a genetic indicator of stress coping style in pigs! This showcases how multidisciplinary research can advance animal welfare. Read more: academic.oup.com/genetics/adv...

We’re so proud of Karolina Steinerová who earned her PhD degree @usask.bsky.social Spring 2025 convocation! The swine welfare community has gained an outstanding academic & champion of positive pig welfare. Congrats to Dr. Yolande Seddon for guiding another student to success!
#play #pig #welfare

We were featured in the National Hog Farmer! Check out the article for a refresher on the pig welfare session from this year’s Banff Pork Seminar which featured talks from @PrairieSwine & @UofS WCVM scientists, producers & veterinarians. Read here: informamarkets.turtl.co/story/nation...

Back from the 2025 North American #ISAE Regional Meeting
@University of Guelph – Insightful talks, inspiring science, and a fantastic chance to reconnect with the community of fellow #Ethologists. Always a pleasure to catch up with this crowd! @usask.bsky.social

From piglet play to enrichment in growers: learn how early-life, personality, and enrichment shape pig behaviour & welfare. Catch-up with Martyna #WCVM, Abby & Jen-Yun #PSC
at the 2025 North American #ISAE Regional meeting
#UofG

See the program: ccsaw.uoguelph.ca/upcoming-eve...

In 2018, Canada’s swine industry & #NSERC invested $2M to create the Chair in Swine Welfare to increase research capacity. After five years, there is much to be proud of! Stay tuned as we work to support the industry to apply these findings into practice.
wcvmtoday.usask.ca/articles/202...

We are very proud of our own, Karolína Steinerová, who successfully defended her PhD research, and showed that play can be stimulated and sustained in grow-finish pigs, contributing to positive emotions, reduced fear, & resilience to PRRSV!🎉🎓🐷

Play increases pig heart rate variability, reflecting positive emotions that persist even after play ends. Karolina’s study highlights play as a method to promote joyful experiences in pigs’ lives and to improve welfare in conventional farming. Read it here: www.frontiersin.org/journals/vet...

Rearing grow-finish pigs in environments where play expression is supported facilitates improved learning and trainability, which can translate to improved welfare through better adaptability and reduced fearfulness to novel stimuli.

Read it here: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

We are pleased to announce the Chair in Swine Welfare @USASK was renewed for a second five-year term! Fourteen Canadian pork industry partners have committed > $1 million to extend this critical research role, under the leadership of Dr. Yolande Seddon.

news.usask.ca/articles/res...

Join our #BanffPorkSeminar afternoon sessions that will spark conversations between researchers, vets, & industry experts about implementing swine welfare practices on-farm, with real-world insights and practical solutions from producers & vets.

See you there!

Join Yolande at the @SwineInnovation Deep Dive Session in Banff! Discover how our public-private research partnership drives innovation and solves industry challenges to promote the sustainability of Canadian pork production.

Don’t miss out! Register here: bit.ly/3WXshek

Deck the stalls with boughs of barley, Fa la la la!

From our snout to yours, have a joyous holiday and a Happy New Year!

A chance to play keeps the disease at bay! Our newest publication shows that pigs given opportunities to play with enrichment, then infected with PRRS, were less affected by & developed increased resilience to PRRSV, showing the benefits of play in farmed pigs!

www.frontiersin.org/journals/vet...

Don’t miss the Sask Pork Industry Symposium Nov. 5–6th! Dr. Martyna will be presenting a talk on advancing swine welfare practices that will empower the industry at 11:30 on day one & our students will be presenting posters on both days!

Register here: www.eventbrite.ca/e/saskatchew...

Happy Halloween from the Swine Welfare Research Group!
May your night be filled with spooky fun 🎃🐖. Stay safe and enjoy the festivities!

Optimal light duration & intensity can have positive productivity, welfare, and health benefits for your pigs!

Did you miss our talks about what the NSERC chair in Swine Welfare is doing for you? Don't worry! Dr. Yolande Seddon will be discussing it at the upcoming Red Deer swine technology workshop this October 8th.

Link to register: www.albertapork.com/wp-content/u....

See you there!

Fun Fact: Pigs are very intelligent!

Happy #LabourDay! We celebrate all those who dedicate their lives to animals. Your work – often around the clock and in all conditions, is vital. From agriculture to vet services, conservation to research, your hard work and compassion make a difference every day. Thank you!

We are excited to attend the 9th International Conference on the Welfare Assessment of Animals at Farm Level (WAFL) 2024. Join us for the session on the welfare of farm animals at end of life co-chaired by Dr. Jen-Yun Chou!

Conference program: wafl2024.eaap.org/wp-content/u...

Check out our article with SEGES in @PigProcess for tips on supporting the welfare & productivity of sows and piglets during farrowing & lactation, whether in crates or loose systems:

www.pigprogress.net/pigs/sowsboa...

Interested in positive animal welfare? PAW www.positiveanimalwelfare.net is an informative resource created by SRUC scientists, dedicated to this emerging concept.

Check out highlights from on-going research, publications, and talks on supporting positive animal welfare.

We are one step closer to a carcass-based swine welfare evaluation tool for industry benchmarking & data collection. Our new publication shows that computer vision can accurately detect the sides of pig carcasses in an abattoir.
View Francis’s paper here: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Happy belated #SaskatchewanDay
@USASK is a leading agricultural university, and unique in having dental, medical, & veterinary medicine schools all on one campus! Saskatchewan is home to the Qu'Appelle Valley, freshwater lakes, northern lights, bison & more!
What are you waiting for? Come join us!

Fun fact: Pigs are highly social animals!

Listen to Martyna discuss her research on how managing sow stress during gestation can improve productivity & the measurement of hormones in the pig hair as a marker of stress on The Swine It Podcast show 🇨🇦!

Available here: www.wisenetix.com/blog/elevati...