Broiler breeders — the parents of commercial meat chickens — face severe welfare problems from feed restriction. Addressing this overlooked population improves welfare across the chicken supply chain.
Broiler breeder welfare represents a welfare problem that is structurally embedded in the genetics of modern chicken production and is consequently difficult to address without systemic change. The chronic hunger experienced by broiler breeders is not an occasional welfare compromise but a permanent condition lasting the entire productive life — an extraordinary welfare cost affecting hundreds of millions of animals globally. The behavioral evidence of chronic hunger stress is compelling: food-guarding, aggression at feed delivery, stereotypic food-seeking behaviors, and cognitive studies showing that hungry breeders prioritize feed access over other motivations. The most welfare-positive solution is developing and adopting slow-growing breeder lines that do not require feed restriction, but this requires industry-wide change. In the interim, improved feed restriction management (multiple small meals, enriched feeding environments) partially mitigates the welfare harm.