Why providing adequate rest opportunities for farm animals is a fundamental welfare requirement, and how housing design affects rest quality.
Adequate rest is a fundamental welfare requirement that is often compromised in commercial livestock systems. Cattle unable to lie for their required daily period show indicators of fatigue, reduced rumination, and increased lameness from standing on hard surfaces. Pigs on slat or bare concrete floors have limited ability to achieve comfortable rest postures. Poultry under continuous lighting or inadequate dark periods experience circadian disruption equivalent to chronic jet lag. Rest deprivation is a welfare harm that accumulates over time, affecting both the quality of life and the physical health of farm animals.