Climate change is creating new welfare challenges for farm animals through heat stress, changing disease patterns, and feed scarcity, requiring proactive adaptation strategies.
Climate change is amplifying existing welfare problems for farm animals while creating new ones. Heat stress is a serious welfare problem causing elevated body temperature, increased respiration, reduced feed intake, and reproductive failure - all representing significant suffering for affected animals. As extreme heat events become more frequent, the proportion of farm animals experiencing heat stress is growing. Novel disease challenges from range-shifting pathogens represent additional welfare threats. Adaptation measures protecting farm animals from climate impacts are both welfare necessities and will become increasingly important economically.