ABSTRACT
Animal well-being can be characterized as the harmony an animal is experiencing mentally and physically with its environment. Animal well-being is often used interchangeably with the term animal welfare. Domestic livestock and poultry are raised under a variety of environmental conditions that are vastly different from those of their wild ancestors. The scientific assessment of the well-being of livestock and poultry has become important to the sustainability of raising them for food and fiber. The best scientific approach and criteria to assess animal well-being have yet to achieve a scientific consensus, but it is generally accepted that behavior, physiology, health, productivity, cognition, and system ecology are indicators of animal well-being.
