Welfare indicators allow objective assessment of animal wellbeing, and the shift from resource-based to animal-based measures represents an important advance.
The development of validated animal welfare indicators represents a scientific advance that grounds welfare assessment in evidence rather than assumptions. The traditional approach of assessing welfare by checking whether required resources are present - adequate space, appropriate temperature, sufficient feed - has been superseded by animal-based measures that directly assess whether animals are experiencing good welfare outcomes regardless of resource provision. A farm with adequate nominal space where overcrowding creates fearful, injured animals scores worse on animal-based welfare indicators than a farm with seemingly minimal resources where animals are calm and healthy. The Welfare Quality project's validated assessment protocols for major farm species provide the scientific foundation for welfare assessment schemes, and the emerging application of computer vision for automated, continuous welfare monitoring promises real-time welfare data at farm scale.