Lighting programs for commercial poultry affect activity levels, fear responses, bone health, and behavioral welfare, with evidence guiding welfare-positive light management.
Lighting management for commercial poultry represents a low-cost, high-impact welfare intervention: providing adequate darkness periods for sleep costs nothing but improves immune function, bone health, and behavioral welfare across millions of individual birds. The welfare harm of continuous light — chronic sleep deprivation affecting immune competence, stress responses, and recovery from daily activity — is real and preventable. The regulatory progress represented by minimum darkness period requirements in the EU Broiler Directive demonstrates that welfare-protective lighting is both politically achievable and industry-compatible. Natural light access in outdoor systems represents the optimal welfare lighting environment, supporting behavioral regulation and welfare across the full daily cycle.