Animal Welfare and Biosecurity on farm: views from actors on the field

While biosecurity and animal welfare are widely understood to be essential for sustainable livestock production, tensions can arise when measures to reduce disease risks limit welfare opportunities, or when welfare-enhancing practices increase the likelihood of pathogen introduction. As part of the BIOSECURE project, we have explored farm decision-makers’ perspectives on the relationship between biosecurity and animal welfare, with a particular focus on situations where the two may come into conflict and eliciting potential solutions for those conflicts.
The methodology used was semi-structured interviews with farmers or veterinarians where we presented short vignettes designed to prompt discussion. The vignettes were developed based on previous input from livestock experts from different sectors and one was common between all sectors (access to outdoor rearing) while the others were sector specific (e.g. barn systems for layers, slow growing breeds for broilers, enrichment material for pigs, and group pens for dairy cattle). Participants were selected to reflect a range of herd sizes and management systems across each sector. Interviews were recorded and afterwards analysed using thematic analysis to identify key themes.
This work was done between May and December 2025 in three different countries: 9 poultry farmers (4 layer and 5 broiler) were interviewed in Ireland; 9 dairy farmers (small to large farms) were interviewed in Sweden; while 10 pig veterinarians (5 intensive and 5 extensive) were interviewed in Spain. Although farmers are the main decision-maker for poultry in Ireland and dairy cattle in Sweden, pig veterinarians are considered the main farm-level decision maker on Spanish pig farms.
From the analysis there were common themes between sectors: farmers consistently described animal welfare and biosecurity as dependent on and essential to each other, participants repeatedly described biosecurity as a pre-requisite for animal welfare. Outdoor access was considered “essential” for welfare but poses challenges for biosecurity, which are difficult to manage albeit fencing was a suggested way to minimise exposure to wildlife. Other welfare factors such as material for enrichment and contact with people, were identified as potential sources of pathogen introduction in all sectors. While solutions were found for many of these, some are not easy to implement on farm.
This study has identified potential conflicts between biosecurity and animal welfare by decision-makers at farm level and local context appeared differently relevant for each sector. For some conflicts ready to use solutions could be identified whereas others may require a trade-off between welfare and biosecurity.