From Science to Farm: How Environmental Enrichment for Pigs Is Communicated to Technicians, Professionals and Producers in Multimedia Resources

Introduction
The mandatory implementation of environmental enrichment (EE) in Brazilian pig farms, established by MAPA Normative Instruction No. 113, has increased the demand for technical guidance on the topic. Therefore, we aimed to examine how EE is currently portrayed in technical communication materials directed at swine producers.

Methods
We conducted gray literature searches using Google and four widely accessed online magazines for swine producers, with the descriptors “environmental enrichment” and “swine*”. We identified 93 multimedia items and analyzed the stated motivations for EE adoption, the types of EE presented, the reported effects on animal welfare, and the representation of EE in images.

Results
The promotion of animal welfare was cited as the primary motivation for EE implementation (82%). The most frequently presented types of EE were objects (51%) and substrates (35%), followed by sensory (28%), nutritional (19%), physical (9%), social (6%), and cognitive (3%) forms. Reported outcomes focused mainly on behavioral changes (51%), along with effects on injury incidence (29%), productive performance (28%), disease occurrence (4%), and other aspects (3%). The most emphasized benefits included the stimulation of species-typical behaviors (48%), stress reduction (33%), improved productive performance (25%), and reductions in stereotypies (22%), agonistic interactions (22%), and injuries (17%). However, 40% of the images analyzed contained no representation of EE.

Conclusions
Although substrates are recognized as the gold standard for environmental enrichment, this is not consistently reflected in producer-oriented materials. The lack of clear and contextualized images further limits practical guidance. Despite regulatory progress and broader dissemination of the topic, better alignment among technical communication, legislation, and scientific evidence is needed to effectively improve animal welfare.