The aim of this area of investment is to support and enable UK researchers to carry out research that seeks to understand and improve the welfare of managed animals.
Animal welfare research should seek to increase knowledge of:
- the basic behavioural, neurobiological, immune, metabolic, physiological and tissue responses of animals to their environmental conditions
- the positive and negative impacts of human intervention, genetic selection and management, such as agricultural intensification, on the normal function and welfare of animals
- the incidence and alleviation of disease, pain, stress, mental disorders and other negative mental states
- the benefits of interventions and environmental changes that enrich and positively impact the lives of animals under human supervision
Examples of animal welfare research areas
Fundamental research
Examples include but are not limited to:
- basic behavioural, neurobiological, immune, metabolic, physiological and tissue responses of animals to their environment and causes of variation between individual animals (between-animal variation)
- fundamental understanding of pain and the physiological processing of noxious stimuli (nociception)
- fundamental understanding of the emotional experiences of animals and their capacity for sentience
- understanding of interactions between welfare, cognition and perceptual biology
- understanding of the effects of the microbiome on welfare
- impact of early life challenges on development and long-term health and welfare
- (un)consciousness during stunning for aquatic species
Advancing welfare assessment
Examples include but are not limited to:
- development and validation of operational welfare indicators including physiological, biological and behavioural measures of welfare for assessment of positive and negative welfare states
- development and validation of lifetime measures of welfare
Development, validation and application of tools, technology and data to improve welfare
Examples include but are not limited to:
- digitally assisted monitoring tools for assessing animal welfare across the life course, for example on farm and during transport
- the application of novel technological solutions and linking data across systems
- the development of new husbandry approaches to improve animal welfare through early detection of stress and disease
- the development and application of omics technologies
- non-invasive techniques, for example imaging, remote monitoring, artificial intelligence tools
Understanding factors influencing welfare
From housing to slaughter
Examples include but are not limited to:
- effects of housing, husbandry and breeding on welfare
- new environmental enrichment methods and their benefits
- stress and welfare during transport
- stress and welfare during stunning and slaughter
- new approaches to housing, husbandry and transport which seek to positively impact welfare
Welfare impacts of health and disease
Examples include but are not limited to:
- incidence and alleviation of managed animal disease, pain and mental disorders, and its effect on welfare
- understanding and treatment of welfare-related health and disease, for example foot rot, lameness, mastitis, and postweaning multisystemic wasting syndrome
- welfare during disease outbreak, for example impact of avian influenza and depopulation of species following outbreaks
Understanding impacts of farming practices and climate on welfare
Production
Examples include but are not limited to:
- positive and negative influence of production traits and selective or precision breeding strategies on animal welfare
- positive and negative impacts of human intervention and management for the normal function of animals
- understanding the links between genotype and phenotype including rapid and accurate measurements of phenotype in real-world environments
- ethical genetic changes to improve resilience
Climate change and sustainability
Examples include but are not limited to:
- positive and negative impacts of farming practices on welfare, such as sustainability, regenerative farming or agricultural intensification
- effect of pollution on welfare
- understanding the impact of climate change and its consequences such as heat stress on physiological and behavioural functions and the development of effective solutions or mitigations
- the impact of sustainable farming strategies, net zero and biodiversity on welfare
- the impact of climate mitigation strategies on animal welfare, for example breeding for improved feed efficiency
- the impact of climate change on the microbiome as relevant to welfare
Feed and nutrition
This includes, but is not limited to, the impact of feed additives and nutrition on animal welfare.