Technology innovation is creating new tools for welfare monitoring, assessment, and improvement — from automated lameness detection to pain biomarker assays at farm scale.
Technology is transforming what is possible in animal welfare monitoring and assessment. Sensors that track individual animal behavior continuously can detect welfare problems days before clinical signs appear. Thermal imaging identifies inflammation without physical examination. Automated analysis of vocalization patterns detects pain states invisible to observation. These technologies lower the cost and increase the sensitivity of welfare monitoring, making continuous welfare assessment feasible at commercial scale for the first time.