Livestock’s economic and social roles
The livestock sector plays a vital economic and social role in the EU, representing millions of farms, contributing significantly to agricultural production (40% in 2023), food security, and supporting rural vitality. However, in recent years, the number of livestock farms has declined (-48% in holdings between 2010 and 2020), and farmers are confronted with several challenges, which make the transition to more sustainable and competitive livestock systems increasingly complex.
Climate change, global population growth and increasing global demand for animal-based products are intensifying pressure on natural resources. At the same time, the sector faces ongoing challenges from animal infectious diseases, which can disrupt production, affect trade, and pose risks to food security and public health. The spread of transmissible animal diseases or zoonoses, and the misuse of antimicrobials, further add to these concerns. The societal demand in Europe for increased animal welfare is strong.
Research and innovation are essential for ensuring a more sustainable and resilient livestock production. This includes improving resource use at all levels, from animal breeding and feeding strategies to circular farming and diversified production systems. In order to safeguard animal and human health, a One Health approach puts a strong focus on:
- animal health and welfare,
- disease prevention,
- prudent antimicrobial use, and
- alternative treatments.
Integrated approaches, supported by advanced data-driven solutions and improved tools can help mitigate risks while improving overall productivity, competitiveness and animal welfare.
A holistic perspective is needed, considering the entire agricultural system and addressing key challenges such as:
- climate-related risks,
- emissions reduction,
- food security,
- ecosystem restoration,
- competitiveness, and
- attractiveness of animal farming.
At the same time, the sector must align with societal expectations for responsible farming, better animal welfare, and more sustainable food choices.
Research in action
Improving livestock sustainability
Several projects aim to bridge the gap between practice and science communities and provide solutions to assess and improve the sustainability of farmed animals. Projects address several production systems and various husbandry practices.
Examples of projects include:
- Inno4Grass, EuroSheep, EuroDairy, SheepNet, BovINE and Grazing4AgroEcology on grazing-based animal production systems.
These projects were/are active in creating networks of stakeholders and provided numerous practice-driven innovations to improve the economic performance and sustainability of dairy, beef and sheep and goat production in Europe.
- iSAGE and Sm@rt (both on small ruminants), 4D4F and R4D (both on dairy cattle), EU PIG, Pathways, Re-Livestock and STEP UP on resilient livestock systems have been developing sustainable innovative practices, advanced tools.
- CoCo focuses on the relationship between livestock husbandry practices and wildlife populations, aiming to integrate wildlife and pastoral management.
The tools developed tackle for instance precision livestock farming, decision support systems, digital technologies, assessment tools, and scenario modelling, to respond to challenges like climate change, resource use efficiency and food security.
Pilot projects, demonstrations, practice hubs and living labs are used to support farmers.
Animal welfare
Some projects are dedicated to exploring and testing sustainable animal welfare practices and welfare assessment tools in conventional, low-input, extensive or organic farming systems:
- Hennovation which tested novel practices in laying hens (feather pecking amongst laying hens and during transport).
- aWISH also addresses transport and slaughter and aims to develop automated sensors to monitor animal-based welfare indicators in broilers and pigs.
- PPILOW aimed to improve health and robustness in pigs and poultry and avoid the killing of day-old male chicks by providing novel tools (e.g. in-ovo sexing, novel male chick rearing systems, new pig farrowing systems).
- ClearFarm used precision livestock farming in pigs and dairy cattle by integrating animal welfare, along with environmental and economic sustainability information.
- TechCare developed novel welfare approaches to improve and validate tools, early warning systems and indicators for the efficient identification of welfare issues.
Animal feeding
Many projects aimed to optimise feed formulations in different breeds and management conditions, improve the feed efficiency and sustainability of livestock production and explore novel feed sources, for example:
- Feed-a-Gene (on monogastric animals) made progress on new feed resources (e.g. protein-rich feed from clover, lucerne, soybean and rapeseed), on animal breeding (e.g. traits and models for digestive efficiency and robustness) and on novel precision feeding systems to improve efficiency and competitiveness (two precision feeding system prototypes for growing pigs have been built).
Projects such as the following address the integration of a variety of new or alternative protein sources:
- OK-Net EcoFeed (on organic and regional feed),
- ProFuture (on microalgae),
- SUSINCHAIN,
- NextGenProteins (on insects), and
- NUTRIFEEDS (insects, local plants and agri-food by-products).
Quality of animal products
- Projects like mEATquality, INTAQT, and Code Re-farm, assessed the extrinsic and intrinsic quality of animal derived products using novel analytical tools, modelling or genetics that helps in building the trust of actors along the value chain, reinforcing the link with the territory.
Understanding diseases
This is a prerequisite for designing tools and measures to assess risks, prevent or respond to diseases.
- DELTA-FLU, PALE-Blu, PIGSs, DEFEND filled gaps in our understanding of avian influenza (AI), blue tongue, Streptococcus suis, African swine fever (ASF) and lumpy skin disease (LSD).
- Kappa-Flu and WiLiMan-ID address highly pathogenic AI, and five priority diseases (AI, ASF, African horse sickness – known as AHS, West Nile fever, Chronic wasting disease).
- HoloRuminant and 3D-Omics study the animal microbiome.
- COMBAT and PREPARE4VBD address vector-borne diseases.
- HE-Farm and BioSecure focus on biosecurity.
- SPARC is working on good practices for sustainable worm control in ruminant production systems.
Surveillance and diagnostics
Diagnostics enable detecting or quantifying the presence of micro-organisms or markers of their presence, and measure the immunity of animals, detecting whether animals were vaccinated or not, etc. They support surveillance schemes and drive treatment decisions.
- SWINOSTICS and VIVALDI developed ready-to-use field diagnostic tests for several viruses and bacteria.
- DECIDE develops data-driven decision support tools for the early detection of disease emergence, focusing on respiratory and gastrointestinal syndromes in pigs, poultry and cattle.
Vaccines
Vaccines are a key component in preventing infectious diseases from occurring in an animal or herd. They also reduce the risk of disease spread and contribute to the fight against antimicrobial resistance (AMR).
Projects include:
- REPRODIVAC targets abortifacient diseases, including porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS) and Q fever.
- SPIDVAC addresses AHS, 'peste des petits ruminants' and foot-and-mouth disease.
- VACDIVA worked on the development of live-attenuated vaccines against ASF and related tests, for use in pigs and/or wild boar.
- VAX4ASF and ASFaVIP are also working on African swine fever vaccine development.
- SAPHIR aimed to develop vaccine strategies against six pathogens responsible for high economic losses in livestock, e.g. porcine respiratory and reproductive syndrome (PRRS).
- PIGSs and PARAGONE, who addressed addressed Streptococcus suis and several helminth parasites of ruminants respectively, improved the understanding of ways of stimulating immune response to vaccine antigens.
- DEFEND studied a virally vectored vaccine against ASF and worked on optimising Lumpy skin disease vaccine strategies.
'One Health' and antimicrobial resistance
While the projects mentioned above contribute indirectly to the fight against AMR, other projects such as the following can be highlighted:
- DISARM, ROADMAP, HealthyLivestock focusing on reducing the use of antimicrobials, or
- AVANT, NeoGIANT focusing on the development of alternatives to traditional antimicrobials.
The One Health European Joint Programme co-funded OH EJP which worked notably on AMR, mainly on detection, surveillance and risk assessment.
Advancing bee health and beekeeping
Honeybee colonies are essential for agriculture and the environment. Beekeeping is practised throughout all EU countries, characterised by diverse production conditions, yields, and techniques. Several projects are dedicated to advancing bee health and beekeeping practices across Europe, each offering unique insights and innovations:
- The POSHBEE project provided a pan-European quantification of the exposure to chemicals and how chemicals alone, in mixtures and in combination with pathogens and nutrition, affect bee health.
- B-GOOD generated a mainly automated data stream of components related to bee health. Both projects provided technical innovations.
- BeeGuards and BETTER-B are addressing various factors impacting the resilience of beekeeping.
- The Thematic Network B-THENET is addressing best beekeeping practices and innovation tailored to specific geographical and a beekeeping context.
Coordination and alignment of international, EU and national R&I priorities
- Since 2024, the co-funded European partnership on animal health and welfare is to address virtually all needs in animal infectious diseases and animal welfare.
- The STAR-IDAZ International Research Consortium (IRC), with SIRCAH 2 supporting its secretariat, is an alliance of research funders and centres seeking to coordinate research at international level on priority diseases and issues.
- The ERA-NET ICRAD was a co-fund action bringing together research funding organisations to coordinate public research programmes. Since 2019, ICRAD funded 33 transnational projects addressing various diseases, including zoonoses; vaccine strategies; diagnostic technologies etc.
- OH EJP addressed food-borne zoonoses, AMR and emerging zoonotic threats.
Actions under other programmes
There are numerous projects on livestock production.
European Research Infrastructures (including e-Infrastructures)
- SmartCow: An integrated infrastructure for increased research capability and innovation in the European cattle sector.
- PIGWEB: An infrastructure for experimental research for sustainable pig production.
Marie Sklodowska-Curie actions
- CHICKENSTRESS: Variations in stress responsivity in hens: matching birds to environments.
SME instrument
- Proton: Recycling industrial CO2 into cost-competitive protein for high-value, sustainable animal feed.
COST actions
- LIFT: Lifting farm animal lives – laying the foundations for positive animal welfare.
- GroupHouseNet: Synergy for preventing damaging behaviour in group housed pigs and chickens.
- ASF-STOP: Understanding and combating African Swine Fever in Europe.
- ENOVAT: European Network for Optimisation of Veterinary Antimicrobial Treatment.
- HARMONY: Novel tools for test evaluation and disease prevalence estimation.
- BETTER: Biosecurity Enhanced Through Training Evaluation and Raising Awareness.
- ESFLU: European Swine Influenza Network.
- OneHealthDrugs: Health drugs against parasitic vector borne diseases in Europe and beyond.
- COMBAR: Combatting anthelmintic resistance in ruminants.
- SOUND-control: Standardising output-based surveillance to control non-regulated diseases of cattle in the EU.
- ENOVA: European Network of Vaccine Adjuvants.
EU CAP Network
Animal production systems
- Robust and resilient dairy production systems
- Grazing for Carbon
- Reducing emissions from cattle farming
- Mixed Farming Systems: Livestock/Cash crops
- New feed for pigs and poultry
- Profitability of permanent grassland
- Protein crops
- Sustainable beef production systems
- Wildlife and agricultural production
- Alternative solutions for livestock product differentiation
