Highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) outbreaks have required mass culling of hundreds of millions of birds. The welfare of culled birds and biosecurity measures raise significant ethical questions.
Avian influenza management creates acute welfare dilemmas at enormous scale. When an HPAI outbreak is detected, the standard response — whole-flock culling — kills healthy birds alongside infected ones. The welfare of these culling events varies dramatically by method: CO2 gassing with appropriate concentrations and exposure times is relatively fast, while ventilation shutdown causes prolonged distress from heat stroke and is incompatible with any welfare standard. The scale of HPAI culling events — hundreds of millions of birds — makes welfare quality a matter of extraordinary aggregate importance. Beyond individual culling methods, the intensive confinement systems that house hundreds of thousands of genetically identical birds in single buildings are precisely the conditions that amplify pandemic risk, creating a structural link between intensive poultry welfare and biosecurity.