Advanced broiler welfare management addresses the complex interactions between genetics, environment, health, and behavior in commercial chicken production.
Advanced broiler welfare management must grapple with the fundamental problem: the genetic selection that defines modern commercial production is itself a welfare constraint. No amount of enrichment or environmental improvement can fully compensate for a bird whose cardiovascular system fails to support its muscular mass, or whose skeletal system cannot adequately bear its body weight. The Better Chicken Commitment addresses this by requiring slower-growing breeds alongside improved environments. The welfare gains from slower-growing breeds include dramatically reduced leg disorders, cardiac disease, and breast myopathy — improvements that are measured in millions of individual birds spared chronic pain each year in adopting supply chains.