Feather pecking in laying hens has a significant genetic component, and selective breeding for reduced pecking tendency is an increasingly viable route to welfare improvement that complements environmental management.
Feather pecking has proven stubbornly resistant to purely environmental management approaches, particularly in large commercial flocks. This resistance reflects the fact that genetic predisposition is a major determinant of flock-level pecking severity. Breeding programmes that select for reduced feather pecking tendency represent a sustainable, systemic welfare improvement that reduces the problem at source rather than managing its consequences. The challenge is that commercial breeding companies operate under strong selection pressure for production traits, and welfare traits must compete for selection attention. Industry-level commitments to include welfare traits including feather pecking resistance in breeding indices — analogous to how lameness and SCC are now included in dairy cattle breeding values — would accelerate meaningful genetic progress. This approach works best alongside environmental improvements, as genetic resistance reduces but does not eliminate the environmental triggers for pecking.