EDITORIAL article
Front. Vet. Sci.
Sec. Animal Behavior and Welfare
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fvets.2025.1715133
This article is part of the Research TopicAdvances in the Application of Technology for Monitoring Horse Welfare and HealthView all 11 articles
Editorial: Advances in the application of technology for monitoring horse welfare and health
Provisionally accepted
- 1Universita degli Studi di Milano, Milan, Italy
- 2University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy
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The dynamic role of horses in today's society, from sport and leisure riding to therapeutic activities and 9 companionship, underscores the critical need for effective animal health and welfare monitoring. Horses are 10 highly sensitive animals, and, like other species, their well-being has a direct impact on their performance, 11 longevity, and quality of life. In recent years, animal welfare has become a topic of increasing interest, evolving 12 into an issue of scientific, regulatory and ethical significance. This has stimulated intense research and 13 development in various areas, including laboratories, farms, zoos, companion and working animals. The 14 increased attention reflects a growing awareness of the need to improve the living conditions of animals while 15 promoting environmental sustainability [1], [2], [3], [4]. In equines, welfare assessment is still a challenge, given 16 the complexity of integrating multiple indicators into a representative framework [5], [6], [7]. 17To date, equine welfare has been assessed through direct observations of animal-based measures such as body 18 condition or the presence of injuries and physiological indicators such as blood concentrations of cortisol.
Keywords: equine monitoring, wearable sensors, Computer Vision, Horse behaviour, PLF
Received: 28 Sep 2025; Accepted: 01 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Dalla Costa and BOVO. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: MARCO BOVO, marco.bovo@unibo.it
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