What Is Animal Science? Research Areas, Funding, and Career Paths

What Is Animal Science?

Animal science is the branch of agricultural science that studies domesticated and agriculturally important animals — cattle, swine, poultry, sheep, goats, horses, and increasingly aquaculture and companion species — from the level of genetics and physiology through nutrition, reproduction, behavior, health, and the production systems that raise them for food, fiber, and other uses. It sits at the intersection of biology and applied agriculture: the same core life-science disciplines (genetics, physiology, microbiology, biochemistry) that underlie veterinary medicine and biomedical research get applied here to questions of animal growth, efficiency, welfare, and product quality at a population and systems scale.

As a field, animal science asks questions like: How does a nutrient ration affect growth rate and feed efficiency? What genetic and management factors drive reproductive success in a herd? How do stress, housing, and handling affect animal welfare and productivity? How do pathogens spread through animal populations, and what interventions reduce disease burden? Its methods draw on controlled feeding trials, breeding and genetics studies, physiological and behavioral measurement, and increasingly genomics and precision-livestock sensor data, layered onto the whole-animal and herd/flock-level thinking that distinguishes it from laboratory bench science alone.

Animal science is a sub-field of the broader agricultural science umbrella — see that guide for how it relates to plant/crop science, soil science, and agricultural economics as sibling agricultural disciplines — and it overlaps with, but is distinct from, veterinary medicine (which is clinically and diagnostically focused on individual-animal health) and biomedical/laboratory animal research (which uses animals as models for human disease). For the full map of how animal science fits among the natural sciences generally, see the branches of science hub.

Major Sub-Disciplines Within Animal Science

• Animal nutrition — formulating diets/rations for growth, reproduction, lactation, and health across species, including feed efficiency, digestibility, and nutrient requirement research.
• Animal genetics and breeding — selection, quantitative genetics, and increasingly genomic selection to improve traits like growth rate, disease resistance, milk yield, or carcass quality across generations.
• Physiology and reproduction — endocrinology, reproductive technologies (artificial insemination, estrus synchronization, embryo transfer), lactation physiology, and growth biology.
• Animal behavior and welfare science — measuring and improving housing, handling, and management practices against validated welfare indicators; closely tied to the 3Rs framework and species-specific behavioral needs.
• Meat, milk, and food science — product quality, safety, and processing of animal-derived food products from carcass to table.
• Species-specific tracks — dairy science, poultry science, swine science, equine science, and aquaculture, each with dedicated professional societies and curricula (see Careers below).
• Production/systems management — the applied, economics-adjacent side: herd health programs, precision-livestock technology, and sustainable production-system design.

Who Funds Animal Science Research

Animal science research in the United States is funded through a mix of federal competitive grants, USDA’s own intramural research arm, and commodity/industry research programs:

• USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) is the principal federal funder of competitive animal-science research, chiefly through the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI), USDA’s flagship competitive grants program, which funds work spanning animal health, growth and reproductive efficiency, nutrition, and well-being alongside its plant-science and food-system priorities. NIFA also runs the USDA SBIR program, whose topic area 8.3, “Animal Production and Protection,” funds small-business research directly relevant to livestock and poultry health and productivity.
• USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS) is USDA’s in-house intramural research arm and operates dedicated animal-research facilities and programs (animal health, genetics, and production research centers) alongside its extramural NIFA counterpart.
• NIH funds animal-science-adjacent work chiefly where it intersects biomedical relevance — comparative medicine and animal-model infrastructure through its Office of Research Infrastructure Programs (ORIP), and physiology/genetics work funded by relevant institutes when it has translational human-health value. Most NIH-funded animal research is governed by PHS Policy and the Animal Welfare Act framework covered elsewhere on this site.
• NSF, through its Directorate for Biological Sciences (including the Division of Integrative Organismal Systems), funds more fundamental research on animal physiology, behavior, development, and neurobiology that is not agriculturally applied but often shares methods and species with animal science programs.
• Commodity checkoff and industry research programs (e.g., beef, pork, and dairy checkoff-funded research) supplement federal funding with applied, production-focused research relevant to specific livestock sectors — a funding channel largely unique to agricultural sciences among the research disciplines covered on this site.

Research involving live vertebrate animals, whichever funder is involved, is governed institutionally through IACUC review — see our guides on IACUC training and the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals, and, for agricultural species specifically, the dictionary entry on the Ag Guide that many animal-science programs apply instead of the laboratory-animal Guide.

Research Methods and Tools

Animal science research combines classic agricultural-experiment methods with modern molecular and data tools:

• Controlled feeding and management trials — randomized, replicated trials (often at university or USDA research farms) testing diet, housing, or management interventions against growth, health, or production outcomes.
• Genomic and genetic tools — SNP genotyping arrays, genomic selection models, and increasingly whole-genome sequencing for breeding-value estimation and disease-resistance research.
• Physiological and biochemical assays — hormone assays, blood chemistry, and metabolic measurement to study reproduction, growth, and stress physiology.
• Behavioral observation and welfare assessment tools — structured ethograms and validated welfare-assessment protocols for housing and handling research.
• Precision livestock technology — wearable sensors, activity monitors, and automated feeding/milking systems that generate continuous individual-animal data for both research and on-farm management.
• Reproductive technologies — artificial insemination, embryo transfer, and estrus synchronization protocols, used both as research tools and production interventions.

Careers and Training Pathways

Animal science is taught as an undergraduate major at most land-grant universities, typically within a College of Agriculture, and commonly leads to graduate work (MS/PhD) in a specialized track — nutrition, genetics/genomics, reproductive physiology, or animal behavior/welfare — housed in an animal science, dairy science, poultry science, or animal biology department. Graduate training generally combines coursework in the relevant sub-discipline with a thesis or dissertation built around original research, often conducted at a university research farm or in partnership with USDA-ARS facilities.

Career paths include academic and USDA-ARS research positions, extension and industry roles in livestock and dairy production, feed and animal-health companies, and government regulatory positions (e.g., USDA/APHIS). Some animal-science graduates pursue veterinary school (DVM) as a separate professional-doctorate track rather than a continuation of the animal-science research degree. Field-specific professional societies include the American Society of Animal Science (ASAS), the American Dairy Science Association (ADSA), and the Poultry Science Association (PSA) — the three founding member societies of the Federation of Animal Science Societies (FASS), which jointly publishes the Ag Guide referenced above.

Related CASRAI Guides

• Branches of Science — the full hub of discipline guides this page belongs to.
• What Is Agricultural Science? — the parent field animal science sits within.
• What Is Conservation Biology? — a related life-science field, focused on wild rather than domesticated species.
• What Is Plant Pathology? — the plant-science counterpart within agricultural science.
• IACUC Training and the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals — the compliance framework governing animal research.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is animal science the same as veterinary medicine?

No. Animal science is a research and agricultural-production discipline focused on populations, genetics, nutrition, and production systems; veterinary medicine (DVM) is a clinical professional doctorate focused on diagnosing and treating individual animals. Many animal-science graduates go on to veterinary school, but the two are distinct degree paths.

What is the difference between animal science and biology?

Animal science applies core biological disciplines — genetics, physiology, nutrition, microbiology — specifically to domesticated, agriculturally important species and production systems, whereas general biology or zoology is not limited to agricultural species or applied production questions.

What degree do you need to work in animal science research?

An undergraduate animal science degree is the typical entry point; research careers in academia, USDA-ARS, or industry generally require an MS or PhD in a specialized sub-discipline such as nutrition, genetics, or physiology.