Selective breeding has been used to maximise production traits, often at the cost of animal welfare. Redirecting selection pressure toward welfare traits offers a route to systemic improvement.
Selective breeding has inadvertently created many of the welfare crises in modern animal agriculture. The good news is that the same tools can be redirected toward welfare objectives. Genetic variants that reduce susceptibility to disease, improve skeletal development, or reduce aggression can be selected alongside production traits. The challenge is economic: welfare traits must be demonstrably valuable to producers to be incorporated in breeding indices. Consumer and regulatory pressure that makes welfare-positive genetics commercially advantageous is the key lever for change.