Breathprints of the Barn: The Future of Livestock Research and Monitoring with Exhalomics

Livestock farming faces increasing demands for sustainability and improved animal welfare. Noninvasive approaches for monitoring animal health and physiology are of growing interest. Exhaled breath analysis, or exhalomics, has emerged as a promising tool for detecting volatile organic compounds and gases associated with metabolism, disease states, physiological processes, and microbiome in livestock. This review synthesizes current advancements in breath sampling and analytical technologies and evaluates applications in disease diagnostics, nutritional assessment, and physiological and microbial profiling across livestock species. Although progress is evident, key challenges remain, including sampling variability, incomplete metabolite annotation, and limited scalability for field use. Future efforts should prioritize standardizing protocols; expanding livestock-specific spectral libraries; and developing affordable, real-time sensors for on-farm deployment. Integrating exhalomics with multi-omics and artificial intelligence-driven analytics holds potential to enable earlier disease detection, improve production efficiency, and reduce environmental impacts, ultimately advancing precision livestock farming and animal welfare over the coming decade.