Modern commercial turkeys are highly susceptible to heat stress due to their large body mass and poor heat dissipation, causing significant suffering during hot conditions.
The extreme selective breeding that has made commercial turkeys grow to slaughter weight in just 16 weeks has also made them physiologically fragile and poorly adapted to temperature variation. Their large muscle mass generates heat that the birds struggle to dissipate, making them acutely vulnerable when ambient temperatures rise. Heat stress causes measurable suffering — elevated heart rates, labored breathing, and heat exhaustion — and can escalate to mass mortality events. Climate change is making these events more frequent, intensifying the welfare crisis in intensive turkey production.