Genetic approaches to animal welfare - selecting for disease resistance, temperament and structural soundness - are transforming what is achievable.
Selective breeding has historically prioritised production traits at the expense of welfare, creating many of the health problems seen in modern farm animals. Welfare genomics represents the potential to reverse this direction - to use the same genetic tools to improve welfare as have been used to compromise it. The challenge is that welfare trait selection requires investment and may initially conflict with short-term production economics.