The One Health framework recognises that human, animal, and environmental health are interdependent - and animal welfare improvements often directly improve human health outcomes.
The One Health approach creates powerful policy alignment between human health advocates and animal welfare campaigners. Conditions that cause animal welfare problems - overcrowding, stress, antibiotic dependency, zoonotic disease pressure - also create human health risks. COVID-19, avian influenza, and other pandemic risks are linked to animal-human interfaces in farming and trade. Improving farm animal welfare through space, enrichment, and lower density directly reduces these shared risks, making the welfare case also a public health case.