de la Garza, F., Cannon, C. Z. 2020. Piggy see, piggy do: A swine training program enhances animal welfare and research. Laboratory Animal Science Professional 8(2) (March/April), 54-57.

Becton Dickinson (BD) Animal Research Program developed an extensive training and environmental enrichment program to acclimate newly arrived swine to daily husbandry routines. The program seeks to build trust between swine and animal care and research staff from human-animal interactions. Natural behaviors are promoted including social interactions and rooting. The program’s goal is to decrease stress associated with laboratory research procedures and to improve animal welfare leading to reproducible and reliable scientific data. This publication serves as a reference to describe the step-by-step process in the swine training program.