Improving farm animal welfare in developing countries requires approaches that recognize the economic, cultural, and practical context. Welfare improvements must align with farmer interests to achieve scale.
Livestock welfare in developing country contexts demands a different approach than welfare advocacy in high-income settings. Farmers who are themselves vulnerable cannot be expected to prioritize animal welfare over their own economic survival without support. Effective welfare improvement works with this reality: demonstrating that healthier, better-nourished animals with managed parasite burdens produce more milk, grow faster, and have lower mortality - that welfare improvement aligns with farmer interest. Community-based approaches that empower local animal health workers, provide accessible veterinary inputs, and connect welfare improvements to measurable productivity outcomes achieve scale that externally-imposed standards cannot.