Pain scoring tools for livestock have been developed and validated but uptake in practice varies, with implementation gaps causing avoidable animal suffering.
The implementation gap in livestock pain management - between what science knows and what happens on farms - represents avoidable suffering at scale. Validated pain assessment tools allow objective identification of pain states, but most farms rely on subjective observation that misses significant proportions of painful animals. Regular pain scoring training for stockpersons, combined with accessible and affordable analgesics, reduces unnecessary suffering. Welfare certification schemes that require pain relief for routine procedures have driven significant improvements. The goal is normalising pain management in livestock as it has been normalised in companion animals.