The subject of farm animal health welfare in the context of climate change is a complex area, with no ‘one size fits all’ solution. Following the development of Vet Sustain and VetSalus course “A Veterinary Approach to Sustainable Food and Farming”, VetSalus sought to gather together the latest research, focussing on how animal health and welfare factors can impact on emission outputs from livestock production.
In January 2023, we sought to conduct a literature review in this area, focussing on the following key areas:
Carbon emissions and other environmental impacts associated with livestock agriculture, in ruminants, pigs and poultry
Carbon sequestration in livestock farming and differences according to species and farming system
Carbon metrics - CO2eq, GWP100, GWP*, and any other metrics of note.
Overview of how these are calculated, e.g. lifecycle assessments
Briefly, why animal health and welfare is important in terms of environmental impacts. More specifically:
Impacts of feed, fertility and genomics on emissions.
Differences between pasture-based and bought feed in terms of emissions accounting
Impacts of disease and disease prevention on emissions
A brief explainer on the metrics used in ‘efficiency; e.g. CO2eq/Kg meat; CO2eq/hectare
Efficiencies regardless of the livestock production system - intensive indoor production to extensively managed systems (for relevant species).
The potential for negative trade-offs in other areas of sustainability in the pursuit of ‘efficiency’ - e.g. animal welfare, biodiversity, social/public health outcomes; with examples from the literature (e.g. close confinement systems might be the most carbon efficient but deny the animals behavioural opportunities).
How these might be assessed and mitigated. E.g. animal welfare outcome measures.
How vet professionals can support farmers in reducing emissions and other environmental impacts of farming (reduce negative impacts), and support carbon sequestration and other benefits (drive positive impacts),
VetSalus appointed Nick Britten BVSc CertAVP PhD MRCVS, livestock vet and researcher from Synergy Farm Health to conduct a literature review, the findings from which were published by the British Veterinary Association in their Vet Record Journal in September 2024. We were involved in outlining the topic area of this review but had no involvement in how literature searches were conducted or how the conclusions were synthesised.
With the impact of agriculture on climate change coming under increased scrutiny, and consumers seeking increased assurance that the food they consume is derived from high welfare environments, VetSalus believes that the role of veterinarians in supporting wholesome food sourced from healthy animals has never been more important. We thank Nick and the Synergy Farm Health team for their input in this important research area.
You can find the resulting paper on the BVA Journal Library