Commercial turkeys have been selectively bred for large breast muscle, creating significant welfare problems including difficulty walking, cardiovascular strain, and inability to mate naturally. Welfare improvements require breed selection changes.
The extreme selective breeding of commercial turkey breeds has created animals that suffer from the weight of their own bodies. The inability to reproduce naturally is itself an indicator of how far modern breeds are from their natural phenotype. Leg problems cause chronic pain affecting millions of birds. As with broiler chickens, the welfare solution involves moving to slower-growing breeds with better skeletal and cardiovascular health, even at the cost of production efficiency. Higher welfare labels increasingly require breeds with better health outcomes.