Ducks are semi-aquatic birds with strong water-related behavioural needs that are almost universally unmet in commercial production systems.
Duck welfare is one of the most neglected areas of farmed bird welfare. Unlike chickens, ducks are semi-aquatic birds for whom water is not merely a drinking resource but a medium for essential maintenance behaviours — bill-cleaning, eye-flushing, feather condition maintenance, and thermoregulation. Systems that provide only nipple drinkers deny ducks the capacity to perform these behaviours, resulting in visible welfare problems: eye discharge, dirty plumage, and disrupted preening that impairs feather insulation. The welfare fix is technically straightforward and not prohibitively expensive — open-water drinkers, showering systems, or pond access — but adoption requires consumer pressure and regulatory mandates that have been slow to materialise outside the UK.