The broiler industry faces growing pressure to improve welfare standards. Slow-growth breeds and better housing conditions represent the most impactful reforms available.
Broiler welfare reform represents one of the most high-impact areas in farmed animal welfare given the enormous number of animals affected. The approximately 70 billion broilers produced annually experience lives shaped primarily by genetics that prioritise growth rate over health. The result is chickens whose bodies are fundamentally unsuited to the weight they carry — lameness, cardiovascular failure, and contact dermatitis from inability to move away from litter are systematic, predictable outcomes of current genetics. Switching to slower-growing breeds, reducing stocking density, providing environmental enrichment and natural light, and ensuring access to perches and clean litter addresses most of these problems. The cost premium is modest but requires coordinated consumer and corporate demand to drive industry change.