Hundreds of millions of cattle in tropical smallholder farming systems face welfare challenges from disease burden, nutritional stress, and limited veterinary access — requiring context-appropriate solutions.
Tropical smallholder cattle welfare operates in a fundamentally different context from high-income commercial systems. Farmers are often deeply attached to individual animals but face structural barriers to veterinary access, feed security, and disease control. Disease burden from ticks, trypanosomiasis, and respiratory infections causes sustained suffering. Welfare improvement requires context-appropriate interventions that improve animal health while being economically viable for subsistence farming households.