Legal Complexities of Animal Welfare in Australia: Do On-Animal Sensors Offer a Future Option?

Abstract

The five freedoms and, more recently, the five domains of animal welfare provide internationally recognised frameworks to evaluate animal welfare practices which recognise both the physical and mental wellbeing needs of animals, providing a balanced view of their ability to cope in their environment. Whilst there are many techniques to measure animal welfare, the challenge lies with how best to align these with future changes in definitions and expectations, advances in science, legislative requirements, and technology improvements. Furthermore, enforcement of current animal welfare legislation in relation to livestock in Australia and the reliance on self-audits for accreditation schemes, challenges our ability to objectively measure animal welfare. On-animal sensors have enormous potential to address animal welfare concerns and assist with legislative compliance, through continuous measurement and monitoring of an animal’s behavioural state and location being reflective of their wellbeing. As reliable animal welfare measures evolve and the cost of on-animal sensors reduce, technology adoption will increase as the benefits across the supply chain are realised. Future adoption of on-animal sensors by producers will primarily depend on a value proposition for their business being clear; algorithm development to ensure measures are valid and reliable; increases in producer knowledge, willingness, and trust in data governance; and improvements in data transmission and connectivity.

Progress With Livestock Welfare in Extensive Production Systems: Lessons From Australia

“…Continuous measurement and monitoring of the behavioral state of animals by using on-animal sensors to identify movements and locations that reflect the well-being of the animals, has potential for extensive livestock systems (66). With increasingly reliable animal welfare measures and decreasing costs of on-animal sensors, technology adoption will very likely increase, particularly if the value proposition for farm businesses and algorithm development, ensures validity and reliability (66). The application of new technologies to improve livestock management systems for improved animal welfare, should complement the learning abilities of the animals (67).…”

Responsible robotics design–A systems approach to developing design guides for robotics in pasture-grazed dairy farming

“…NZ is a light-touch regulation economy with few subsidies, but adoption of milking robotics may require some form of investment incentives to. Potential regulatory barriers also need to be assessed in robotics development; such as food safety regulations related to milk harvesting and cooling (Eastwood and Renwick, 2020), and implications under animal care regulations (Manning et al, 2021;Tzachor et al, 2022). A wider consideration is the long-term perception of automated farming among consumers and the wider public (Romera et al, 2020;Pfeiffer et al, 2021).…”

Abstracts from the Proceedings of the 34th Biennial Conference of the Australian Association of Animal Sciences

“…On-animal sensors are emerging as a realistic and valuable tool for rangeland sheep and will bring significant benefits for sheep producers and woolgrowers through improved management decision and intervention measures. In turn, this can have implications for the future of animal welfare, monitoring and legislative compliance (Manning et al 2021).…”