One Welfare: Connecting Human & Animal Wellbeing

The One Welfare concept recognises that animal welfare, human wellbeing, and environmental sustainability are interconnected — that improving one area often benefits the others, and that solutions addressing all three simultaneously are more effective and durable than isolated interventions.

Origins & Development

One Welfare builds on the One Health framework, which recognised the links between human, animal, and environmental health in disease management. One Welfare extends this to encompass wellbeing more broadly: mental health, social cohesion, economic security, and quality of life alongside physical health. The framework was formalised in academic literature around 2016 (Garcia Pinillos et al.) and has been adopted by the OIE (now WOAH) and FAO.

Key Interconnections

• Stockperson welfare → animal welfare: Farmers and stockpersons experiencing burnout, financial stress, or mental illness are less able to provide attentive animal care. Supporting rural mental health directly improves animal welfare outcomes.
• Animal welfare → human wellbeing: Farmers who care for thriving, healthy animals experience greater job satisfaction and sense of purpose. Bonding with animals provides psychological benefits to owners and carers.
• Environmental sustainability → both: Degraded environments harm both wild animal populations and the livelihoods of rural communities. Regenerative farming practices can improve all three dimensions simultaneously.

Evidence Base

Research supports the bidirectional relationships at the heart of One Welfare. Studies have found that farmer wellbeing scores correlate with animal welfare outcomes on their farms. High-stress livestock handling is associated with both poorer animal welfare and higher rates of workplace injury. Farms with good human-animal relationships show lower disease rates and higher productivity.

Applications in Policy

One Welfare thinking is influencing agricultural policy in several areas:

• Farm support payments that reward both environmental and animal welfare outcomes
• Integrated rural mental health programmes targeted at farmers
• Agricultural extension services that address human as well as animal health
• Disaster response frameworks that consider animal welfare alongside human welfare

Practical Implementation

For farmers and veterinarians, One Welfare provides a framework for holistic farm assessments that go beyond animal health metrics to consider the broader wellbeing ecosystem. Tools like the Welfare Quality assessment and new One Welfare assessment frameworks are being developed to capture this complexity.

Further Reading

• One Welfare Framework 2025
• Stockperson Wellbeing
• Farm Worker Welfare