Precision livestock farming uses sensors, cameras, and AI to monitor individual animal health and behaviour in real time. When applied thoughtfully, this technology can dramatically improve welfare outcomes.
Precision livestock technology creates a potential step-change in welfare monitoring by enabling continuous individual animal assessment at scales impossible for human observation. Early disease detection — identifying lameness, metabolic disease, or respiratory infection days before clinical signs are obvious — allows intervention before suffering becomes severe or prolonged. At flock level, camera-based gait scoring and behavioural monitoring can identify welfare problems across large broiler or layer flocks faster than routine manual checks. The welfare value of this technology depends entirely on how it is used: data that triggers rapid, effective intervention improves welfare; data that is collected but not acted upon does not. The risk is that technology creates a false sense of welfare assurance without requiring genuine system improvement.