Turkeys are intensively farmed with welfare challenges similar to broiler chickens. Understanding their needs helps drive improvements in production standards.
Turkey welfare has received less public attention than broiler chicken welfare despite sharing many of the same fundamental problems. The extreme selection for rapid growth and large breast muscle in commercial turkey breeds creates comparable skeletal, cardiovascular, and respiratory problems to fast-growing broilers. Turkeys also have significant cognitive and social capabilities that are poorly served by intensive production environments — they are curious, social birds that in natural conditions would spend hours foraging, exploring, and engaging in social interaction. The seasonal concentration of turkey production around winter holidays creates rapid production scaling that can compromise welfare monitoring. Higher welfare turkey production using slower-growing breeds, lower stocking densities, and enrichment is available but represents a small fraction of the market.