Introduction

Individual states of health and welfare result from complex interactions between the individual and the environment it inhabits. Recent research has resulted in a paradigm shift in our understanding of these relationships, with identification of new individual vulnerability factors that change disease risk, the effects of inhabiting environments far removed from the animal’s natural history, and the central role of the interaction between humans and animals on the welfare of each.

This chapter will describe some of these issues from the perspective of domestic cat health and disease. Beyond the implications for cat health and welfare, how these factors influence cats also serves as an example of factors affecting health and disease in other species, with the cat serving as the ‘canary in the coal mine’. Environmental factors affecting cat behaviour and welfare in confinement, in homes, or in cages while housed in shelters, research facilities and veterinary clinics and how to optimise the environment by minimising perceived threat through provision of resources, control and predictability will be outlined.