Farm animals used in agricultural research experience welfare challenges similar to and sometimes worse than those in biomedical research, with less regulatory oversight in many jurisdictions.
Agricultural research animal welfare is poorly regulated relative to biomedical research in many countries. In the US, the deliberate exclusion of farm animals from Animal Welfare Act coverage means that pigs, cattle, and chickens used in agricultural research have less legal protection than mice used in biomedical research. This regulatory gap allows procedures and housing conditions that would require ethical review in other contexts to occur without oversight. The 3Rs framework should apply equally to agricultural research, and independent ethics review should be mandatory for all vertebrate use in research regardless of agricultural or biomedical classification.