Historically, animal welfare science and policy has been associated with European and other industrialized countries worldwide. From its "birth" in the '60s and '70s, through its expansion in the '80s and ‘90s, animal welfare science and policy have a high profile across all sectors of animal "use" within these countries, be it farm, companion, zoo, laboratory and, increasingly, wildlife. More recently, elements of animal welfare appeared in the Terrestrial Animal Health Code. This started in 2004 with a chapter on general principles (although there were already sections on welfare during transportation) and continued with other chapters on slaughter, use of animals in research, stray dog control, and livestock production systems. This led to the development of standards that are approved by, and applicable to, the 182 member countries around the globe. Thus, animal welfare science and policy continue to spread to non-industrialized and developing countries.
For national animal welfare policies to be developed and implemented, they must be informed by appropriate science. Many of those countries that are already signatories to the OIE chapters on animal welfare do not have a well-established animal welfare science base or critical mass of researchers. Dissemination, especially Open Access dissemination, has barriers such as insufficient funding and a lack of experience or implicit bias within the publishing process. The goal of this Research Topic is to enable researchers from developing countries to showcase their science, foster collaborative networks and to gain experience of the publishing process in a high quality journal.
In this Research Topic, we wish to focus on animal welfare science and associated social science research in developing countries and the formulation and application of animal welfare policy. We encourage Original Research articles in particular but will also consider other article types such as Brief Research Report, Case Report, General Commentary, Perspective, Review and Systematic Review. We particularly welcome articles that report on research carried out on livestock production systems, species or breeds that are relevant to the area in which are concentrated.
Historically, animal welfare science and policy has been associated with European and other industrialized countries worldwide. From its "birth" in the '60s and '70s, through its expansion in the '80s and ‘90s, animal welfare science and policy have a high profile across all sectors of animal "use" within these countries, be it farm, companion, zoo, laboratory and, increasingly, wildlife. More recently, elements of animal welfare appeared in the Terrestrial Animal Health Code. This started in 2004 with a chapter on general principles (although there were already sections on welfare during transportation) and continued with other chapters on slaughter, use of animals in research, stray dog control, and livestock production systems. This led to the development of standards that are approved by, and applicable to, the 182 member countries around the globe. Thus, animal welfare science and policy continue to spread to non-industrialized and developing countries.
For national animal welfare policies to be developed and implemented, they must be informed by appropriate science. Many of those countries that are already signatories to the OIE chapters on animal welfare do not have a well-established animal welfare science base or critical mass of researchers. Dissemination, especially Open Access dissemination, has barriers such as insufficient funding and a lack of experience or implicit bias within the publishing process. The goal of this Research Topic is to enable researchers from developing countries to showcase their science, foster collaborative networks and to gain experience of the publishing process in a high quality journal.
In this Research Topic, we wish to focus on animal welfare science and associated social science research in developing countries and the formulation and application of animal welfare policy. We encourage Original Research articles in particular but will also consider other article types such as Brief Research Report, Case Report, General Commentary, Perspective, Review and Systematic Review. We particularly welcome articles that report on research carried out on livestock production systems, species or breeds that are relevant to the area in which are concentrated.
