Broiler breeder birds — the parents of commercial meat chickens — experience severe and chronic hunger due to feed restriction programs essential to their management.
Broiler breeder welfare represents one of the most intractable welfare problems in animal agriculture — a problem created by the very genetics that make commercial chicken farming economically viable. Birds genetically selected for rapid growth cannot be fed ad libitum as breeders without developing obesity, joint disease, and reproductive failure. The solution — severe feed restriction — creates chronic hunger as the constant welfare state for hundreds of millions of birds. Research into qualitative feeding programs that provide bulky, low-calorie food offers partial welfare improvement. The fundamental solution requires changing the genetics of commercial chickens — selecting birds that can sustain normal welfare as both breeders and their offspring. This is a slow process, but the European Chicken Commitment and slower-growth breed requirements are beginning to address the root cause.