Animal Health & Welfare

Livestock diseases, epidemiology, zoonoses and animal welfare.

Animal health research covers infectious and production diseases of farm animals - from mastitis in dairy cows and parasitic infections to viral epidemics such as African swine fever or foot-and-mouth disease - including their epidemiology, diagnosis, treatment and prevention.

Because many pathogens can pass between animals and humans, the field overlaps with public health ("One Health"). Animal welfare science studies behavior, housing conditions and how welfare can be measured and assessed.

Studying animal health & welfare

Degree programs in this subject often run under these names:

What you typically learn

  • Livestock diseases and herd health
  • Epidemiology and zoonoses
  • Animal welfare science
  • Hygiene and biosecurity
  • Veterinary public health and food safety

Where graduates typically work

  • Herd health and welfare advisory
  • Animal health industry
  • Public veterinary and food safety authorities
  • Welfare auditing and certification
  • Research on livestock diseases

Curricula differ by country and institution - the program pages linked below have the details.

Where to study animal health & welfare

8 programs in 7 countries. See all 8 programs

Where research is heading

Typical research questions

  • How do animal diseases spread between farms and regions, and how can outbreaks be contained?
  • How can antibiotic use in livestock be reduced without harming animal health?
  • Which zoonotic pathogens pose risks at the animal-human interface?
  • How can animal welfare be measured objectively on farms?

Publications per year

Papers whose main topic belongs to this field, 2010–2025.

0 12.5k 25k2010: 16,47420102011: 16,7682012: 17,6462013: 17,4622014: 18,3822015: 18,86020152016: 19,4742017: 18,8172018: 18,7742019: 20,0852020: 20,02420202021: 18,9232022: 17,5572023: 18,4892024: 19,6282025: 22,7762025

Research fronts: fastest-growing topics

Papers 2024–2025 compared with 2021–2022, topics with at least 500 recent papers.

Topic2021–20222024–2025Change
Vector-Borne Animal Diseases[object Object] · [object Object] · [object Object] · [object Object]540737+36%
Zoonotic diseases and public health[object Object] · [object Object] · [object Object] · [object Object]3,3594,285+28%
Animal Disease Management and Epidemiology[object Object] · [object Object] · [object Object] · [object Object]3,6834,526+23%
Brucella: diagnosis, epidemiology, treatment[object Object] · [object Object] · [object Object] · [object Object]1,8772,226+19%
Animal Law and Welfare[object Object] · [object Object] · [object Object] · [object Object]3,7484,444+19%
Animal Virus Infections Studies[object Object] · [object Object] · [object Object] · [object Object]5,5896,491+16%

Largest topics

By number of papers 2024–2025.

  1. Animal Behavior and Welfare Studies[object Object] · [object Object] · [object Object] · [object Object] 7,204
  2. Animal Virus Infections Studies[object Object] · [object Object] · [object Object] · [object Object] 6,491
  3. Helminth infection and control[object Object] · [object Object] · [object Object] · [object Object] 5,497
  4. Animal Disease Management and Epidemiology[object Object] · [object Object] · [object Object] · [object Object] 4,526
  5. Animal Law and Welfare[object Object] · [object Object] · [object Object] · [object Object] 4,444
  6. Zoonotic diseases and public health[object Object] · [object Object] · [object Object] · [object Object] 4,285

Highly cited recent papers

Most-cited articles and reviews published 2024–2025. Citation counts favor reviews and papers published early in the window.

  1. The One Health Concept Sarah J. Pitt, Alan Gunn · British Journal of Biomedical Science · 2024 · 222 citations · Open access
  2. Interconnecting global threats: climate change, biodiversity loss, and infectious diseases Alaina C. Pfenning‐Butterworth, Lauren B. Buckley, John M. Drake et al. · The Lancet Planetary Health · 2024 · 188 citations · Open access
  3. A meta-analysis on global change drivers and the risk of infectious disease Michael B. Mahon, Alexandra Sack, Oscar Alejandro Aleuy et al. · Nature · 2024 · 168 citations · Open access
  4. The Lancet One Health Commission: harnessing our interconnectedness for equitable, sustainable, and healthy socioecological systems Andrea Sylvia Winkler, Christina Marie Brux, Hélène Carabin et al. · The Lancet · 2025 · 151 citations · Open access
  5. Ecological countermeasures to prevent pathogen spillover and subsequent pandemics Raina K. Plowright, Aliyu Nuhu Ahmed, Tim N Coulson et al. · Nature Communications · 2024 · 146 citations · Open access
  6. Climate change, its impact on emerging infectious diseases and new technologies to combat the challenge Hongyan Liao, Christopher J. Lyon, Binwu Ying et al. · Emerging Microbes & Infections · 2024 · 143 citations · Open access

All study programs in animal health & welfare

All study programs