Commercial male turkeys (toms) have been selectively bred for extreme rapid growth and breast muscle development that creates serious welfare problems including skeletal abnormalities, cardiovascular disease, and an inability to mate naturally.
The welfare problems of commercial toms stem directly from decades of intensive selective breeding that prioritised breast muscle yield over the ability to live, move, and function normally. Lameness is not a side effect of bad management — it is built into the genetics of these birds. The inability to mate naturally means their reproductive life is defined by weekly stressful handling procedures. Cardiovascular disease causes sudden deaths that represent acute suffering among birds who appeared healthy minutes before. The industry has known about these problems for decades, and while some improvement has occurred, the fundamental tension between commercial genetics and animal welfare remains unresolved. Slower-growing breeds suffer these problems at substantially lower rates.