The nutritional status of farm animals profoundly affects their health and welfare, with feed restriction and poor diet quality representing significant welfare risks.
Feed restriction in broiler breeders is a serious and underrecognized welfare problem. Birds with strong genetic drive to eat are provided only 60-80% of what they would consume if given free access, causing chronic hunger that manifests as stereotypic behavior and aggressive food competition. This is done to prevent the obesity and reproductive failure that would occur if birds were allowed to eat freely. The root cause is the use of genetics selected for rapid growth in meat production parents — an inherent conflict between production system and parental welfare.