Ducks are waterfowl whose biology and behavioral needs are fundamentally shaped by water access. Farming systems that deny adequate water for bathing and swimming cause significant welfare compromise for millions of birds.
The denial of water access to farmed ducks is one of the clearest examples of welfare compromise for the sake of production convenience. Ducks are waterfowl — their entire behavioral repertoire, feather maintenance system, and thermoregulatory biology evolved for aquatic environments. In systems without bathing water, eye disease, nasal blockage, and feather degradation are common because the basic maintenance behaviors the bird's body requires cannot be performed. The motivation for water access is so strong that ducks in deprived systems will show intense bathing behavior in drinking troughs and nipple drinkers that cannot actually wet their plumage. The welfare solution is straightforward: provide water access adequate for immersion. The barrier is cost and management difficulty, which consumer demand for higher-welfare duck products can help overcome.