Theoretical and Empirical Research on Animal Welfare Policy

Dear Colleagues,

With the growing recognition of animals as sentient beings, there is a mandate for higher levels of farm animal welfare. Governments around the world are responding with an ever-expanding range of policies, mostly focused on establishing minimum standards of welfare. Private actors such as retailers and food outlets are also imposing regulatory control through their purchasing behaviour, and producers are differentiating their products, either independently or collectively, through private labels and quality assurance schemes. The result is a complex and varied animal welfare policy landscape with important social, economic and trade implications that to date are imperfectly understood.

The goal of this Special Issue of Animals is to provide empirical and theoretical insights to that will inform the development of consistent and effective policies to promote and protect farm animal welfare. In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome. Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following: policy formulation, implementation and evaluation; farm-level regulatory compliance; the implications of farm animal policy for markets, food security and international trade. We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Kathryn Blackman Bicknell
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.

• animal welfare
• policy evaluation
• farm-level compliance
• farm animal
• international trade
• decision support systems
• welfare management
• welfare monitoring
• welfare assurance
• food labelling