The history and future of animal welfare is encompassed in a new book co-written by two researchers from the College of Sciences.

The Sciences of Animal Welfare is the latest in a series on animal welfare sponsored by the world renowned Universities Federation of Animal Welfare.

It is written by the co-directors of the Animal Welfare Science and Bioethics Centre Professor David Mellor and Professor Kevin Stafford with Emily Patterson-Kane, a New Zealand animal welfare scientist from the American Veterinary Medical Association.

The book provides distinct New Zealand perspectives on the theory and practice of animal welfare science set in a global context.

Professor Mellor says he had the idea for the book in 2002. "I thought there was a narrow view of what animal welfare science represented," he says. "It seemed there was a poor understanding of the wider dimensions of animal welfare. Long before the term was coined there were advances being made: the 61 vaccines that have been developed for animals that treat many painful diseases is just one example. This book gives credit to the agricultural, veterinary and genetic sciences that have contributed to improving animal welfare over the years."

Professor Stafford says these advances have led to more intensive farming systems, which in turn raise moral questions about animal welfare.

"These questions will be the focus of research in the coming years," he says. "A member of the general public may walk into a battery farm and think it's unsavoury, and that may be true. But going to the other extreme, free range, may not be the answer either. According to the current science somewhere in the middle is actually the best."

New Zealand trades on its image as an exporter that produces its primary products with the utmost respect to the environment and the animal. "So it's important that we lead research into the welfare of animals," Professor Stafford says. "Historically, the nation has been well placed to do this. An example is the cobalt deficiency in the pumice soils of the North Island, which has been overcome by scientists."

Professor Mellor says the book will appeal to both animal science students and those studying ethics in humanities. "Anyone who has an active role in the protection of animals can get something from the book," he says. "Students, scientists, regulators and non-governmental organisations can all get something out of it. The book doesn't limit itself to strictly the science of animal welfare, but explores the social contexts of it as well."

In 2007, the World Organisation for Animal Health recognised the Massey Centre as its first collaborating centre for Animal Welfare Science and Bioethical Analysis.

Collaborating centres are centres of expertise in a designated sphere of competence relating to the effective management of animal health and welfare issues.

This year, with Massey support, the world organisation expanded the collaborating centre to include partner groups at AgResearch, the University of Melbourne, the University of Queensland and the CSIRO Animal Welfare Group in New South Wales. Its management committee will have its first meeting at the Manawatu campus this month.