Avian influenza outbreaks require mass culling of poultry flocks, raising profound welfare concerns about the methods used and the scale of killing involved.
Mass culling in response to avian influenza represents one of the most significant acute welfare events in animal agriculture. The scale — millions of animals killed over days — and the methods used under logistical pressure create serious welfare concerns. Ventilation shutdown, used when other methods are not available, causes death by heat stress and is widely condemned by welfare scientists as a method of last resort. CO2 gassing and foam provide more rapid death but require equipment and training. Welfare during avian influenza response is an area where speed-welfare trade-offs are explicit and contested. Pre-prepared response plans, pre-positioned equipment, and trained teams improve both speed and welfare outcomes during outbreaks.