The continuous growth of the world's population and, consequently, the consumption of animal products have led to the intensification of livestock production, which, in turn, facilitates disease transmission and occurrence of welfare problems in farm animals. Consequently, health and welfare problems in farm animals are a major concern in the modern livestock industry, especially because they have multifactorial causes resulting from the interaction of diverse infectious agents (viruses, mycoplasmas, bacteria, and parasites), management practices, nutrition, environmental conditions, and animal characteristics. Compromised health and welfare in farm animals have a negative impact on the profitability of the livestock production and food industry (medication and veterinary expenses, reproductive disorders, poor performance indices and low quality of animal products) and public health (spread of zoonoses, occurrence of antimicrobial resistance and jeopardized the safety of animal products). Despite increasing interest in this research field in the past several decades, the prevalence and consequences of health and welfare problems in farm animals remain high, and, thus, there are still many concerns to be dealt.
The aim of this Research Topic is to spread the knowledge on the prevalence, risk factors, consequences, diagnostic methods and preventing measures for specific health and welfare problems in farm animals.
Specific themes that are invited to this Research Topic include but are not limited to:
- Animal-based and resource-based indicators for the assessment of animal health and welfare problems at farm level;
- Slaughter line carcass and organ inspection for the assessment of the prevalence of specific health and welfare problems in farm animals;
- Risk factors associated with the occurrence of specific health and welfare problems in farm animals;
- Interconnections animal health and animal welfare problems
- Production and/or economic losses (e.g., reproductive disorders, poor performance indices, carcass/organ disposal, carcass trimmings, low quality and lack of safety of animal products, etc.) associated with health and welfare problems in farm animals;
- Development of standardized monitoring schemes for the recording of animal health and welfare problems at the farm and abattoir level;
- Development of rapid, reliable, highly sensitive and automated diagnostic tools for recording animal health and welfare problems at the farm and abattoir (e.g., machine learning technology, image analysis software, respiratory sound analysis, molecular methods, serological tests, biochemical indicators, etc.);
- Development of novel or improvement of existing prevention and control strategies for health and welfare enhancement of farm animals (vaccination and immunization strategies, prophylactic or curative treatments, improvement of housing conditions and biosecurity and management practices, etc.).
Type of manuscripts:
- This Research Topic welcomes reviews and research articles related to the assessment of health and welfare problems of farm animals at the farm and abattoir level in order to determine their prevalence, risk factors, consequences and possible preventing solutions;
- Articles about health and welfare problems of farm animals reared under intensive and extensive production systems are welcome.
The continuous growth of the world's population and, consequently, the consumption of animal products have led to the intensification of livestock production, which, in turn, facilitates disease transmission and occurrence of welfare problems in farm animals. Consequently, health and welfare problems in farm animals are a major concern in the modern livestock industry, especially because they have multifactorial causes resulting from the interaction of diverse infectious agents (viruses, mycoplasmas, bacteria, and parasites), management practices, nutrition, environmental conditions, and animal characteristics. Compromised health and welfare in farm animals have a negative impact on the profitability of the livestock production and food industry (medication and veterinary expenses, reproductive disorders, poor performance indices and low quality of animal products) and public health (spread of zoonoses, occurrence of antimicrobial resistance and jeopardized the safety of animal products). Despite increasing interest in this research field in the past several decades, the prevalence and consequences of health and welfare problems in farm animals remain high, and, thus, there are still many concerns to be dealt.
The aim of this Research Topic is to spread the knowledge on the prevalence, risk factors, consequences, diagnostic methods and preventing measures for specific health and welfare problems in farm animals.
Specific themes that are invited to this Research Topic include but are not limited to:
- Animal-based and resource-based indicators for the assessment of animal health and welfare problems at farm level;
- Slaughter line carcass and organ inspection for the assessment of the prevalence of specific health and welfare problems in farm animals;
- Risk factors associated with the occurrence of specific health and welfare problems in farm animals;
- Interconnections animal health and animal welfare problems
- Production and/or economic losses (e.g., reproductive disorders, poor performance indices, carcass/organ disposal, carcass trimmings, low quality and lack of safety of animal products, etc.) associated with health and welfare problems in farm animals;
- Development of standardized monitoring schemes for the recording of animal health and welfare problems at the farm and abattoir level;
- Development of rapid, reliable, highly sensitive and automated diagnostic tools for recording animal health and welfare problems at the farm and abattoir (e.g., machine learning technology, image analysis software, respiratory sound analysis, molecular methods, serological tests, biochemical indicators, etc.);
- Development of novel or improvement of existing prevention and control strategies for health and welfare enhancement of farm animals (vaccination and immunization strategies, prophylactic or curative treatments, improvement of housing conditions and biosecurity and management practices, etc.).
Type of manuscripts:
- This Research Topic welcomes reviews and research articles related to the assessment of health and welfare problems of farm animals at the farm and abattoir level in order to determine their prevalence, risk factors, consequences and possible preventing solutions;
- Articles about health and welfare problems of farm animals reared under intensive and extensive production systems are welcome.
