Good biosecurity on farms prevents disease introduction and spread, directly benefiting animal welfare by reducing illness, pain, and mortality while also protecting against production losses.
Biosecurity is one of the most direct connections between farm management and animal welfare. The introduction of a serious pathogen to a susceptible population can cause mass illness and death in a matter of weeks. Foot and mouth disease outbreaks require mass culling of millions of animals — including healthy animals on farms adjacent to infected premises — causing direct welfare harm on an enormous scale. The stress of disease itself, the mass culling response, and the secondary effects of illness on other welfare indicators all represent preventable harm that robust biosecurity can substantially reduce.