Sharing welfare data between farms, veterinarians, processors, and retailers can accelerate welfare improvement by enabling benchmarking, research, and accountability at scale.
Key Facts
Slaughterhouse welfare data shared with farms of origin has improved dairy cow and pig welfare in pilot programmes
Data sharing platforms for livestock health including welfare indicators are emerging in several countries
Privacy concerns and commercial sensitivity are barriers to voluntary data sharing in some sectors
Mandatory data collection and sharing frameworks have been implemented in Norway for salmon aquaculture
Welfare Considerations
Welfare data sharing creates collective intelligence that enables sector-wide learning impossible from individual farm observation. Slaughterhouse post-mortem data shared with farms of origin reveals welfare problems that are invisible during the animal's lifetime on farm. Aggregated sector data enables research into the farm management factors most strongly associated with good welfare outcomes. Benchmarking against peers motivates improvement more effectively than comparison against absolute standards. Overcoming barriers to data sharing — through anonymisation, governance frameworks, and regulatory mandates — unlocks the sector-wide welfare improvement potential of data that is already being generated.
What You Can Do
Support the development of livestock welfare data sharing platforms and governance frameworks
Advocate for mandatory welfare data collection and sharing requirements in regulated sectors
Engage with producers and veterinarians about the benefits of participating in data sharing programmes
Support research using shared welfare data to identify high-impact management determinants of welfare outcomes