Improving Livestock Welfare

a. Improvement through Environment & Housing

• Provide adequate space, ventilation, and lighting.
• Ensure clean and dry bedding.
• Modify housing systems to allow natural behaviors (e.g., perches for hens, outdoor access for ruminants).

b. Improvement through Feeding & Nutrition

• Supply balanced diets with sufficient energy, protein, vitamins, and minerals.
• Provide continuous access to clean water.
• Avoid feed restriction practices that cause chronic hunger or frustration.

c. Improvement through Health Management

• Routine veterinary care and vaccination.
• Early diagnosis and treatment of diseases.
• Reduce lameness, mastitis, and parasite burdens.
• Improve breeding practices to avoid genetic disorders.

d. Improvement through Stockmanship

• Train stockpersons to handle animals calmly and humanely.
• Use low-stress handling techniques.
• Encourage positive human–animal interactions to reduce fear and stress.

e. Improvement through Breeding and Selection

• Select for robustness, health, and welfare traits rather than only productivity (e.g., avoid broiler strains with leg problems).
• Reduce genetic selection for extremes (high milk yield, rapid growth).

f. Improvement through Enrichment & Behavior Consideration

• Provide opportunities for animals to express natural behaviors (rooting in pigs, dustbathing in hens, grazing in ruminants).
• Introduce environmental enrichment (toys, substrates, scratching posts, outdoor runs).

g. Improvement through Monitoring & Welfare Assessment

• Apply animal-based measures (lameness scoring, body condition, lesions).
• Regular audits of welfare conditions.
• Use Five Freedoms / Five Domains frameworks to guide improvements.