Accurate pain assessment is foundational to animal welfare science and veterinary practice. Advances in grimace scales, biomarkers, and behavioural tools are improving pain detection across species.
Pain assessment advances are transforming veterinary medicine and animal welfare research. Historically, pain in animals was frequently undertreated because it could not be objectively measured. Validated grimace scales and behavioural pain tools now provide veterinarians with evidence-based instruments for recognising and monitoring pain across diverse species. These tools also enable research into analgesic efficacy, allowing refinement of pain management protocols in laboratory and clinical settings. The development of automated, continuous pain monitoring using AI image analysis promises to make pain detection feasible at farm scale, enabling proactive intervention.