Animal Welfare and One Health Integration

The One Health framework linking human, animal and environmental health provides a powerful lens for understanding and improving animal welfare.

Key Facts

One Health recognises that human, animal and ecosystem health are interdependent
Zoonotic disease transmission is bidirectional - poor animal welfare increases zoonosis risk
Antibiotic stewardship in animal production directly affects human antibiotic resistance
Intensive animal production creates conditions conducive to pathogen emergence and amplification
SARS-CoV-2 likely emerged from wildlife markets where poor welfare conditions facilitated transmission
Improving animal welfare conditions in food production reduces pandemic risk factors
WHO, FAO and OIE have jointly endorsed One Health as a framework for global health security

Welfare Considerations

One Health integration of animal welfare with human health demonstrates that improving animal welfare is not only ethical but practically beneficial to human health outcomes. Pandemic prevention, antibiotic stewardship and zoonotic disease control all depend in part on improving the conditions in which animals are kept. This provides additional policy motivation for welfare improvement beyond ethical arguments, and helps build broader coalitions of support for welfare-protective regulations.

What You Can Do

Support One Health frameworks that include animal welfare alongside human and ecosystem health
Advocate for animal welfare improvements in pandemic prevention policy discussions
Support integrated antibiotic stewardship programmes spanning human and animal medicine
Engage with policymakers on the human health case for improving farm animal welfare conditions