Animal Welfare
Summary
Animal welfare describes the physical and psychological well-being of animals under human care or influence. It encompasses health, comfort, normal behaviour and positive emotional experiences. Modern frameworks recognise that good welfare requires not only the absence of pain, injury or disease, but also the presence of appropriate living conditions, opportunities for natural behaviours and a balance of positive over negative states. Welfare assessment spans multiple settings—from laboratory and farm to companion and wild contexts—and seeks objective measures such as physiological indicators and behavioural patterns, together with considerations of species-typical needs and the animal’s subjective experience. Ensuring high welfare standards is of growing importance for ethical, economic and legal reasons, as society demands transparent, science-based practices that safeguard both animal and human well-being.
Research from Nature Portfolio
A randomised, blinded clinical trial in domestic cats with chronic degenerative joint disease demonstrated that treatment with a novel non-steroidal anti-inflammatory agent led to significant improvements in activity levels and reductions in owner-assessed disability over six weeks. This study confirmed the sensitivity of accelerometry and structured questionnaires as outcome measures and highlighted the potential of targeted pharmacotherapy to enhance feline mobility and quality of life.
In dairy herds, deep-learning pose-estimation methods combined with real-time tracking have been applied to detect lameness in multiple cows simultaneously. By identifying key anatomical landmarks—such as back arch and head position—across video frames and integrating these features with machine-learning classifiers, near-perfect accuracy in distinguishing sound from lame cows has been achieved, enabling continuous, non-invasive welfare monitoring in commercial barns.
High-throughput 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing of bovine hoof lesions has revealed a polymicrobial community underlying complicated claw horn disruption and interdigital phlegmon. While spirochaetes such as Treponema remain central pathogens, the concurrent overgrowth of Fusobacterium, Porphyromonas and Fastidiosipila underscores the role of dysbiosis in lesion development and points to broad-spectrum strategies for diagnosis and control.
Animal Welfare publication trend
The graph below shows the total number of articles in animal welfare across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).
Technical terms
16S rRNA amplicon sequencing: A molecular technique for profiling bacterial communities by amplifying and sequencing a conserved region of ribosomal RNA genes.
Pose estimation: Computer-vision algorithms that detect and track anatomical landmarks in images or video to quantify posture and movement.
Accelerometry: The use of wearable motion sensors to record and analyse activity levels and patterns over time.
Life-Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA): A framework within life-cycle assessment for quantifying environmental and welfare impacts across all stages of a product or system.
Environmental enrichment: The provision of structures, objects or stimuli in an animal’s environment to promote natural behaviours and reduce stress.
References
- Robenacoxib shows efficacy for the treatment of chronic degenerative joint disease-associated pain in cats: a randomized and blinded pilot clinical trial. Scientific Reports (2021).
- Deep learning pose estimation for multi-cattle lameness detection. Scientific Reports (2023).
- 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing reveals a polymicrobial nature of complicated claw horn disruption lesions and interdigital phlegmon in dairy cattle. Scientific Reports (2018).
- Development of a life cycle impact assessment methodology for animal welfare with an application in the poultry industry. Sustainable Production and Consumption (2023).
- Variation in nutritional quality in UK retail eggs. Food Chemistry (2024).
- Effects of group size and cage enrichment on social behaviour and skin injuries of breeding rabbits housed part-time in group. Animal (2023).
About these summaries
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