Food animal health impacts on productivity, animal welfare and human health. What happens to an animal on the farm and its resulting health status has an important influence on the quality, safety and wholesomeness of the meat and offal obtained from that animal. Our research has largely been focused on the environmental influences on beef cattle and sheep health, the farm environment and management, in particular and how it impacts on veterinary public health, i.e. food safety, and animal welfare. The main objective of the study was to examine the use of information about the health and management of cattle and lambs on the farm to predict the risk of visible lesions at slaughter. Th e feasibility of identifying farm-level risk factors for gross lesions detectable during post-mortem meat inspection has been investigated, from which the findings of the sheep study have been published (Edwards, et al. 1999).