Keel bone fractures are the most common welfare problem in commercial laying hens, affecting up to 80% of birds in some systems. This painful and widespread condition receives far less attention than other poultry welfare issues.
Keel bone fractures are a hidden welfare crisis — hidden because the birds continue to lay, appear functional, and do not obviously signal their pain to casual observers. But pain scoring studies, bone pathology research, and behavioral studies confirm that fractured keel bones cause chronic, ongoing pain. The scale is extraordinary: hundreds of millions of hens globally are likely living with painful fractures at any given time. Addressing this problem requires genetic selection for skeletal robustness, facility design improvements, and honest inclusion of keel bone fracture rates in welfare certification standards.