Understanding and measuring pain in broiler chickens is essential for improving their welfare — research on pain assessment tools reveals the scale and nature of broiler suffering.
Pain assessment research in broiler chickens has transformed understanding of the scale of suffering in this industry. The combination of validated pain behavior research and epidemiological data on lameness prevalence indicates that hundreds of millions of broiler chickens experience chronic pain from musculoskeletal disorders at any given time globally. This is not a marginal welfare issue — it represents one of the largest sources of animal suffering in human-controlled systems. Remarkably, the primary driver (extreme selective breeding for rapid growth) is an industry choice that can be reversed: slower-growing breeds have dramatically lower lameness rates. Consumer demand for BCC-compliant products and corporate adoption of higher welfare standards are the primary levers for change.