Outcome-based welfare measures for broiler chickens enable monitoring of actual welfare status on farm and at slaughter, providing more reliable assessment than resource-based audits alone.
Outcome-based welfare monitoring is more reliable than checking that facilities are present. A farm may have perches and enrichment that birds never use; it may have a lighting schedule on paper that is not followed. Outcome measures — measuring the birds themselves — reveal what welfare is actually like regardless of what systems are in place. Slaughter data feedback loops are particularly valuable because they provide population-level data on every flock. Building these systems into standard practice across the broiler industry would significantly improve detection and correction of welfare problems.