Farmed ducks are waterfowl whose welfare depends critically on water access for bathing, preening, and eye health. Most commercial duck production systems fail to meet this fundamental need.
Farmed duck welfare is determined fundamentally by water access. Ducks are waterfowl: their anatomy, physiology, and behavioral systems evolved in aquatic environments. The bill, eye, and feather structures that make ducks so well adapted to water are the same structures that suffer when water access is denied. Bill tip lesions from rooting in inadequate substrates, eye discharge from inability to flush debris, and impaired feather condition from absent preening water are all chronic welfare harms in water-deprived commercial duck flocks. The welfare improvement available through open water provision — even simple troughs that allow head immersion and bill bathing — is substantial and achievable. Consumer demand for higher-welfare duck products and retailer sourcing standards mandating water access are the most direct levers available.