Livestock Welfare Research Priorities

Strategic investment in livestock welfare research maximises the impact of the welfare science field by focusing on questions where new knowledge will most improve animal lives.

Key Facts

Fish and invertebrate welfare research is severely underfunded relative to welfare importance
Pain assessment tools are less developed for fish, poultry, and small ruminants than for cattle and pigs
Research-practice translation is a persistent challenge, with welfare science often slow to reach farm level
Applied welfare research involving commercial systems is more likely to produce actionable findings than laboratory studies

Welfare Considerations

Livestock welfare research prioritisation determines where limited research resources create the greatest welfare improvement. The most welfare-significant gaps are: validated welfare assessment tools for understudied species, effective intervention studies in commercial production settings, research-practice translation mechanisms, and economic analysis that enables business-case communication to producers. Invasive and extensive research involving commercial farm settings is more practically translatable than laboratory studies. International collaboration enables pooling of farm-level data that individual research groups cannot generate. Philanthropic and governmental research funding has historically underinvested in farm animal welfare relative to the number of animals affected.

What You Can Do

Support research funding organisations that prioritise farm animal welfare science
Advocate for government research budgets to include farm animal welfare priorities
Engage with welfare science communications to support research-practice translation
Support academic institutions conducting high-impact farm animal welfare research