Broiler breeder chickens are chronically food restricted to prevent the obesity and health problems of their fast-growing genetics. This causes severe, ongoing hunger that is a major welfare concern.
Chronic hunger in broiler breeder chickens represents one of the most severe and widespread welfare problems in commercial poultry. The animals experience persistent hunger throughout their productive lives as a necessary management response to genetics selected for rapid weight gain. This problem is fundamentally rooted in breeding selection, and long-term welfare improvement requires industry movement toward slower-growing genetics that do not require food restriction for parental breeding stock health.