This is an excellent book on applied animal welfare. It brings together contributions from sixteen of the world's top experts on animal management and care, ethics, animal behaviour and physiology. Its particular strengths are in explaining simple indicators of compromised welfare, principles of livestock handling, design of handling facilities, pain caused by invasive procedures that are routinely used in livestock production, standards in transporting animals, managing casualty animals, consequences of lameness in dairy cows, care and welfare compromise in working equines, technology transfer and behavioural needs of poultry and pigs. It is suitable for undergraduate students needing background reading for their research projects and assignments and for students more generally who wish to develop their knowledge and understanding of animal welfare.

Compared with other animal welfare textbooks, it provides more technical detail and information than is usually the case without overburdening the reader. Some of the sections on the principles of animal care and handling repeat material that can be found in other textbooks. However, the descriptions on working equine welfare and livestock transport are original and make particularly valuable contributions. The chapters on painful husbandry procedures, managing casualty animals, dairy herd management of lameness, and successful technology transfer bring information together in a new way.

The book is good value at £39.95 recommended retail price and one that can be recommended for most animal and veterinary science libraries.