The opportunities for natural animal behaviours in pastures imply animal welfare benefits. Nevertheless, monitoring the animals can be challenging. The use of sensors, cameras, positioning equipment and unmanned aerial vehicles in large pastures has the potential to improve animal welfare surveillance. Directly or indirectly, sensors measure environmental factors together with the behaviour and physiological state of the animal, and deviations can trigger alarms for, e.g., disease, heat stress and imminent calving. Electronic positioning includes Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) for the recording of animals at fixed points. Positioning units (GPS) mounted on collars can determine animal movements over large areas, determine their habitat and, somewhat, health and welfare. In combination with other sensors, such units can give information that helps to evaluate the welfare of free-ranging animals. Drones equipped with cameras can also locate and count the animals, as well as herd them. Digitally defined virtual fences can keep animals within a predefined area without the use of physical barriers, relying on acoustic signals and weak electric shocks. Due to individual variations in learning ability, some individuals may be exposed to numerous electric shocks, which might compromise their welfare. More research and development are required, especially regarding the use of drones and virtual fences.

Cybersecurity represents a critical challenge for data-sharing platforms involving multiple stakeholders, particularly within complex and decentralized systems such as livestock supply chain networks. These systems demand novel approaches, robust security protocols, and advanced data management strategies to address key challenges such as data consistency, transparency, ownership, controlled access or exposure, and privacy-preserving analytics for value-added services. In this paper, we introduced the Framework for Livestock Empowerment and Decentralized Secure Data eXchange (FLEX), as a comprehensive solution grounded on five core design principles: (i) enhanced security and privacy, (ii) human-centric approach, (iii) decentralized and trusted infrastructure, (iv) system resilience, and (v) seamless collaboration across the supply chain. FLEX integrates interdisciplinary innovations, leveraging decentralized infrastructure-based protocols to ensure trust, traceability, and integrity. It employs secure data-sharing protocols and cryptographic techniques to enable controlled information exchange with authorized entities. Additionally, the use of data anonymization techniques ensures privacy. FLEX is designed and implemented using a microservices architecture and edge computing to support modularity and scalable deployment. These components collectively serve as a foundational pillar of the development of a digital product passport. The FLEX architecture adopts a layered design and incorporates robust security controls to mitigate threats identified using the STRIDE threat modeling framework. The evaluation results demonstrate the framework’s effectiveness in countering well-known cyberattacks while fulfilling its intended objectives. The performance evaluation of the implementation further validates its feasibility and stability, particularly as the volume of evidence associated with animal identities increases. All the infrastructure components, along with detailed deployment instructions, are publicly available as open-source libraries on GitHub, promoting transparency and community-driven development for wider public benefit.

Cybersecurity presents a key challenge in data-sharing platforms involving multiple stakeholders, particularly in complex, decentralized systems such as livestock supply chain networks. Such systems require novel approaches, robust security protocols, and advanced data management solutions to address challenges such as data consistency, transparency, ownership, controlled exposure, and privacy-preserving analysis for value-added services. In this paper, we presented the Framework for Livestock Empowerment and Decentralized Secure Data eXchange (FLEX) framework, which is designed based on five core principles: (i) enhanced security and privacy, (ii) human-centric approach, (iii) decentralized and trusted infrastructure, (iv) system resilience, and (v) seamlesscollaboration across the supply chain. The framework integrates interdisciplinary innovations, where decentralized, infrastructure-based protocols facilitate trust, traceability, and integrity. It employs secure data-sharing protocols and cryptographic mechanisms to enable controlled information exchange with authorized parties. Additionally, the use of data anonymization techniques ensures privacy. FLEX was designed and developed using a microservices architecture and edge computing to support modularity and scalable platform deployment. All these components can be used as a foundational pillars of the digital product passport. The FLEX architecture is constructed using a layered design and incorporates robust security controls to address threats identified using the STRIDE threat model. The evaluation results demonstrate that the framework effectively mitigates well-known attacks while achieving the objectives described. Performance evaluation of the implementation further confirms its feasibility and showed its stability as the number of evidence added to animal identity. Furthermore, all infrastructure components, along with deployment instructions, are made available as open source libraries on github for public benefit.