About CAB Direct Animals

The Animals & Veterinary section of CAB Direct, found under /animals/, is a thematic information resource on the health, welfare, production and behaviour of animals, from companion animals and farm livestock to bees, wasps and other insects, as well as mites. It explains in plain language what published research and official data say about these topics, for pet owners, livestock keepers, students, researchers and general readers. For general information about the wider CAB Direct project, see /about/.

What the Animals section covers

The section is organised into four subsections. The boundaries are practical rather than strict: heat stress in livestock, for example, touches on health, welfare, production and behaviour at once.

Wider livestock topics, including sheep vaccination programmes, poultry systems and the use of antimicrobials in livestock, are also in scope for the section.

How information is checked and explained

Evidence about animals comes in many forms: controlled trials, cohort and other observational studies, herd and flock records, surveillance data, laboratory work, field observations of behaviour and long-term insect monitoring. A finding in one species, breed, age group or husbandry system may not apply to another, and a result from a laboratory or a single farm may not hold under different conditions. Articles in the section aim to show which kind of evidence a statement rests on and where it comes from.

• Each article is attributed to a named author whose credentials and coverage are published at /authors/.
• Claims and figures are checked against traceable sources.
• Corrections are dated and remain visible.

The rules that apply across the whole site are set out on dedicated pages: publishing standards at /editorial-policy/, the approach to weighing evidence at /how-we-rate-evidence/, and the handling of errors at /corrections/. This overview does not add a separate review interval or an article-level review stage for the Animals section; the linked pages are the reference point for current practice.

General information, not veterinary advice

Articles in the Animals section are general information. They are not veterinary advice for an individual animal, herd or flock and do not replace an examination by a veterinary surgeon. Questions about a particular animal's health, treatment, vaccination or medicines should be taken to a vet who can assess the animal directly.

The team

The Animals section is written by five authors with backgrounds in animal science, animal welfare, livestock production, zoology, animal behaviour, veterinary epidemiology and entomology. All five hold the role of author, list the CAB Direct Editorial Team as their affiliation and joined the section in September 2026. Names in the table link to full author profiles.

Coverage and expertise

Imogen Farrant (BSc Animal Science, MSc Animal Welfare) covers companion animal health, preventive care, and diet and welfare. Rhys Penwarden (BSc Animal Science, MSc Livestock Production) covers dairy and beef production, herd health, feeding, fertility and livestock welfare. Lena Okonjo (BSc Zoology, MSc Animal Behaviour) covers animal behaviour, insects and entomology, pollinators and pest insects.

Gethin Morrow (BSc Animal Biology, MSc Veterinary Epidemiology) covers sheep vaccination programmes and clostridial diseases, antimicrobials in livestock, heat stress in livestock, poultry and pig systems, and preventive herd health. Rowan Siu (BSc Biological Sciences, MSc Entomology) covers bees and wasps, varroa mites and other mites, insect communication through pheromones, sound and vibration, insect decline datasets and pollinators.

The listed qualifications are academic degrees in animal science, zoology, biology and related fields rather than qualifications to practise as a veterinary surgeon, which is consistent with the section's role as a source of general information rather than clinical advice.

Project background

CAB Direct has its roots in CABI's scientific and bibliographic information services. CABI's history records that the organisation began in 1910 with a small grant to fight the impact of pests and diseases on people, animals and crops, and that the Imperial Bureau of Entomology was formed in 1913 with a monthly abstract journal, the Review of Applied Entomology, issued in an agricultural series and a medical and veterinary series. It also records that the contents of CABI's abstract journals were unified in 1973 to produce the CAB database, CAB Abstracts, and that CAB Direct launched in 2003 as CABI's own platform for CAB Abstracts. CABI now describes the CABI Digital Library as the place to search its main databases, CAB Abstracts and Global Health.

The Animals section described on this page is a current editorial project that organises animal health, welfare and behaviour topics for readers. It should not be read as a statement that the historical CAB Direct database followed this editorial approach, or that CABI publishes this section.

• CABI history: 
• CABI Digital Library help: 

Contact

Editorial questions and general enquiries about the Animals section can be sent through /contacts/. To report a possible error in an animals article, use /corrections/. Author information is available at /authors/, and the site-wide standards are set out at /editorial-policy/ and /how-we-rate-evidence/. Articles in the section are listed at /animals/. Questions about the care or treatment of a specific animal should go to a vet rather than to the editorial team.