Farm animal welfare in the context of other society issues: toward sustainable systems

The measurement of farm animal well-being has evolved through several stages to return to the most agreed-upon system of evaluation that uses a multidisciplinary approach. The multidisciplinary approach includes measures of animal behavior, physiology. anatomy and health and immunity. However, the multidisciplinary approach must be used in the context of other important society issues including: food safety, environmental protection, worker health and safety, economics, international trade, domestic protection, public perception and consumer economics. Only by taking into account all society issues, can the multidisciplinary approach yield useful information to the modem consumer in a manner that can develop sustainable animal production systems. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.