Turkey farming has undergone intense selection for breast muscle growth, creating welfare problems analogous to but less publicly known than those in broiler chickens. Understanding turkey welfare guides better standards and purchasing.
Turkey welfare mirrors broiler chicken welfare in many respects but receives far less attention. The extreme selective pressure for rapid breast muscle growth has created birds with structural compromises — difficulty walking, perching, and thermoregulating — that constitute chronic welfare problems at industrial scale. The inability of commercial turkeys to mate naturally is perhaps the starkest indicator of how far from biological normality selection has taken these birds: a species that cannot reproduce without human intervention has been fundamentally altered in ways that affect its ability to express natural behaviors throughout its life. The welfare improvements available to the turkey industry mirror those for broiler chickens: slower-growing genetics, reduced stocking densities, environmental enrichment, and management that provides turkeys with opportunities to express species-appropriate behaviors.