Welfare science is increasingly focused on measuring welfare outcomes at flock, herd or population level rather than just individual animals, enabling proportionate intervention strategies.
Measuring welfare at the population level allows resources to be directed to where the greatest welfare gains can be achieved. Slaughterhouse data is particularly valuable as it provides objective outcome data that bypasses the limitations of farm-level audit. Linking production data, health records and welfare outcomes through digital systems creates a welfare monitoring infrastructure that can identify problems earlier and at greater scale.