Bovine and porcine respiratory disease complexes are among the most common welfare problems in intensive livestock systems. Prevention through better environment and management is more effective than treatment.
Respiratory disease causes genuine suffering: fever, difficulty breathing, reduced appetite, and lethargy that can persist for weeks. Cattle with BRD show pain indicators including head posture changes, laboured breathing, and reluctance to move. Pigs with enzootic pneumonia cough chronically and show reduced growth from the effort of breathing. The economic and welfare losses from respiratory disease are enormous, yet much of this disease burden is preventable through adequate ventilation, appropriate stocking density, good biosecurity, and stress reduction at mixing and transport. Prevention vastly outperforms treatment for welfare and economics.