Better lives through livestock
How does animal welfare and health
impact food loss?
Rebecca Doyle
Animal welfare scientist
University of Melbourne and International Livestock Research Institute
United Nations Food Systems Summit 2021 intergovernmental dialogue on food loss research
3 June 2021

2
Livestock food loss
On farm
Sale and transport
Slaughter & processing
Consumption
A young Borana woman with her goats
(photo credit: ILRIZerihun Sewunet)

3
On farm
33% smallholder Ugandan pig farmers
experience >20% mortality in their piglets
Oba et al. 2021
29% kid goat mortality in Sindh, Pakistan Memon et al., 2020
32% cattle in traditional Ethiopian
livestock systems are skinny
Berhe et al. 2021
(Photo credit: K. Dhanji/ILRI)

4
Post farm gate
66% Pakistani commercially
slaughtered goats are thin &
14% slaughtered <18 mo females
Sakhawat 2021
More than 600 million people fall ill
every year from eating unsafe foods
One Health Briefs 2021
(photo credit: ILRI/Hanh Le)

5
Reducing loss
33% smallholder Ugandan pig farmers
experience >20% mortality in their piglets;
only 3% farms had same mortality in
sows
Oba et al. 2021
Young goat mortality 29%
Reduced to 12% with strategic feeding
Memon et al., 2020
32% cattle in traditional Ethiopian
livestock systems are skinny
15% skinny cattle in agroforestry systems
Berhe et al. 2021

Peter Oba, Michel Dione, Zachary Nsadha
Abdul Hussain Memon, Muhummed Atta ul Zia, Humera
Iqbal, Somia Memon, Mehmoona Abbassi, Sunbal
Sarfraz, Samia Sharafat, Haroon Muzzafar, Angus
Campbell
Tsega Berhe, Gezahegn Alemayehu, Mulugeta Mokria,
Barbara Wieland
Asfa Shakawat, Sher Ali