How the broiler industry is responding to wooden breast and white striping myopathies, the progress made through breed selection and management changes, and what remains to be achieved.
Broiler myopathy welfare progress illustrates how consumer campaigns and corporate commitments can drive faster change than regulation alone. The Better Chicken Commitment, driven by consumer-facing organizations, has secured pledges from hundreds of major food companies — creating market pressure that conventional regulation has not yet achieved. The pace of change remains insufficient relative to the welfare scale of the problem — billions of birds per year in affected conditions — but the direction is positive and the momentum is building. Welfare advocates who engage with food company commitments, provide public accountability for pledge fulfillment, and continue consumer education are contributing to genuine welfare improvement at scale.