Lighting management in broiler houses significantly affects welfare through its effects on activity, sleep, circadian rhythms, and leg health.
Broiler lighting welfare illustrates how production-motivated management practices can impose chronic welfare costs that were historically overlooked. Continuous or near-continuous lighting was used to maximise feed consumption and growth rate, but at the welfare cost of disrupted circadian rhythms, reduced sleep, and increased leg problems. The requirement for minimum darkness periods addresses this, but the scientific case for longer darkness periods and more physiologically appropriate lighting programmes is strong. Lighting management is a low-cost welfare intervention with direct benefits for bird health, behaviour, and quality of life across the entire production cycle.