Welfare of Livestock and Other Production Animals

Intensive animal agriculture does not necessarily correlate with poorer welfare for animals. The term “factory farm” is often used to describe a large, industrialized farm in which high numbers of animals are raised in confinement, often to maximize production efficiency while minimizing costs and protecting animals from disease and environmental extremes. Animals raised in these systems can be in a better state of welfare than those raised on small farms, and farm size is not necessarily an indicator of welfare.

Feed additives, implants, and other substances are sometimes used to promote efficiency on large farms by, for example, improving feed-to-gain ratio or increasing milk production. Use of some in-feed antimicrobials for growth promotion has been banned in the US in animals entering the food chain; however, regulation against antimicrobial use in intensive production systems could potentially decrease animal welfare by not preventing disease outbreaks. Overuse of antimicrobials, however, could promote development of resistant microbes and lead to a decrease in welfare. Overall, multiple aspects of an animal's welfare must be considered, along with the productivity of the animal, to understand the impact of such practices.

Farmed animals undergo a variety of painful procedures that can affect their welfare. These include castration, tail docking, and disbudding or dehorning. Castration is done in many species to decrease aggression toward other animals and humans, and to improve meat quality. Efforts to mitigate castration-associated pain could entail finding alternatives to castration or providing pain relief during and after the procedure. Alternatives such as using a GnRH vaccine in swine or maintaining lambs in same-sex flocks eliminate the need for castration. Where alternatives do not exist, pain mitigation might be an option.

Dehorning (removal of the horn) and disbudding (removal of the horn's epithelium) are typically performed in cattle and small ruminants to prevent injuries to caretakers and other animals. The dehorning guidelines of the American Association of Bovine Practitioners recommend dehorning animals at the earliest age possible, using the least stressful technique for restraint, and using pain control for all methods, regardless of the animal’s age. Well-defined and effective pain mitigation protocols exist for use in dehorning and disbudding (1), and the need for these painful procedures can be eliminated by the use of polled genetics (breeding livestock to be born without horns).

Various assisted reproductive technologies are used in production animals, including cloning, embryo transfer, and genetic modification. Ethical concerns surround these techniques, especially cloning. Cloning can promote monoculture, leaving a gradually increasing number of animals susceptible to pathogens.

Transport can be stressful for livestock. One aspect of intensive animal production—namely, the compartmentalization of animal raising into age-specific facilities—can lead to more transportation episodes in an animal's lifetime. Appropriate transport vehicles and bedding, as well as humane handling and driving techniques, are some measures that can mitigate stress during transport.

Animal slaughter facilities are inspected and highly scrutinized for animal welfare issues. Moreover, animal welfare principles are built into the protocols of inspected slaughter facilities and inform various aspects of the operation, from how animals are handled at unloading through the stunning and slaughter processes. The American Veterinary Medical Association publishes guidelines for the humane slaughter of animals.

• Guidelines for the humane slaughter of animals. American Veterinary Medical Association.

• Disbudding/dehorning guidelines. American Association of Bovine Practitioners.

1. Kleinhenz MD, Viscardi AV, Coetzee JF. Invited review: on-farm pain management of food production animals. Applied Animal Science. 2021;37(1):77-87. doi:10.15232/aas.2020-02106