Advances in Small Ruminant Welfare
A special issue of Animals (ISSN 2076-2615). This special issue belongs to the section "Small Ruminants".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 October 2025 | Viewed by 80
Special Issue Editor
Interests: animal welfare; stress physiology; meat quality and safety; small ruminants; poultry
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Small ruminants are raised for various purposes, including meat, milk, fiber, and by-products, and depending on the purpose, the production system could be extensive, intensive, or semi-intensive. Wide variations also exist within a system depending on the size of the operation, geographical region, cultural practice, economic status, and marketing system, to name a few. Increased public attention to animal welfare issues and consumer demand for products from humanely treated animals requires the scientific community to keep refining animal welfare assessment methods through research. These findings are expected to bring about the desired changes in production methods, when necessary, further improving animal welfare and farm sustainability. It is well established that production practices emphasizing high animal welfare standards enhance livestock health, productivity, and product quality. In addition to the conventional methods of assessing animal well-being using behavioral observations and physiological stress responses, researchers have explored various other means in recent years, such as thermal imaging, facial cues, product quality, artificial intelligence and machine learning, and multi-omics technology, to name a few.
For this Special Issue, we invite original research articles or review articles addressing small ruminant welfare, particularly those exploring novel methods of assessing and improving well-being. Papers on any small ruminant species raised for any purpose are invited. Studies relating animal welfare to health, productivity, product quality, economics, and sustainability will also be within the scope of this Special Issue.
Prof. Dr. Govind Kannan
Guest Editor
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Animals is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- animal behavior
- animal welfare
- fiber
- goats
- meat
- milk
- sheep
- small ruminants
- stress physiology
- sustainability
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