Pain management in livestock remains inconsistent and underused globally. Ensuring that painful husbandry procedures, disease, and injury are treated with appropriate analgesia is a fundamental welfare obligation.
The underuse of analgesia in livestock farming represents a significant preventable welfare deficit. Painful procedures are performed routinely with the understanding that they cause pain, yet cost and habit prevent widespread analgesia use. The evidence that pain relief is economically justified through improved production outcomes alongside the welfare case should be compelling, yet cultural inertia and prescribing barriers continue to limit uptake. Regulatory requirements for analgesia with specific procedures, combined with simplified prescribing pathways and subsidies for analgesic access, are the most effective policy levers for accelerating change.