By Duncan Mboyah
Failure to integrate animal health and welfare into Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) threatens public health and the environment, a report says.
The report titled “Integrating Animal Health and Welfare into the 2030 Agenda and Beyond” was launched by the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) during the 7th UN Environment Assembly (UNEA) in Kenya’s capital of Nairobi.
Cleo Verkuijl, SEI’s Senior Scientist and a co-author of the report, observed that animal welfare can no longer be treated as an afterthought if a coherent and effective sustainable development agenda is to be achieved.
“Improving the well-being of animals can help tackle the root causes of many global crises – from pandemics to climate change – while improving livelihoods and public health,” Verkuijl noted.
Jeff Sebo, Director of New York University (NYU)’s Center for Environmental and Animal Protection (CEAP) said that the world is not on track to meet the 2030 Agenda.
Sebo who is the co-lead author of the report noted that delegates attending UNEA7 have an opportunity to take practical steps to embed animal health and welfare into global policy, strengthen action for the next five years, and shape a post-2030 agenda that benefits humans, animals, and the environment.
The report warns that despite growing international support for a One Health approach, which recognizes the interlinkages between human, animal, and environmental health, the current SDGs remain incomplete without the systematic inclusion of animal health and animal welfare.
It notes that the omission is a significant gap, as the SDG framework is the primary international framework for achieving sustainable development during the 2015–2030 period.
“Neglecting animal health and welfare can increase major global risks such as zoonotic disease emergence, antimicrobial resistance, biodiversity loss, and ecosystem degradation, while forgoing solutions that can benefit humans and animals at the same time,” the report warns.
The report cautioned that new societal developments, such as artificial intelligence and deep-sea exploration, are rapidly outpacing governance structures, highlighting the need for forward-looking One Health–aligned approaches.
To integrate animal welfare into the global goals, the report calls for the incorporation of wildlife coexistence into urban planning (SDG 11).
It further calls for the introduction of the new SDG targets and indicators that reflect human-animal-environment interconnections, such as metrics to reduce zoonotic disease spillover or track the phase-out of harmful agricultural subsidies, or dedicate an SDG on animal health and welfare, and elevate the issue to the level of other global priorities and reinforce One Health principles.
The researchers raised the concern because 75 percent of emerging infectious diseases in humans today originate from animals, many linked to how people farm, trade, and interact with animals and their habitats.
They noted that the majority of medically important antibiotics are fed to farmed animals, contributing to antimicrobial resistance which already kills more people annually than HIV/AIDS or malaria.
