Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) outbreaks result in the culling of tens of millions of birds annually. The welfare of birds in culling operations raises urgent ethical and practical questions.
Mass culling of poultry for disease control creates acute welfare emergencies at scale that reveal the inadequacy of welfare consideration in standard emergency response planning. Ventilation shutdown plus, which causes death through heat stress over many minutes, would not be permitted as a routine slaughter method, yet it is approved for emergency use because it requires minimal equipment and personnel. The welfare cost — tens of millions of birds dying from heat stress — is enormous and at least partially avoidable with better-prepared emergency response infrastructure including mobile CO2 and foam application equipment. The shift toward vaccination as a preventive approach that avoids culling entirely represents the most welfare-aligned policy direction for HPAI management.