Comparing the welfare outcomes of heritage chicken breeds with commercial broiler and layer lines to understand breed selection impacts.
Breed selection is one of the most fundamental welfare determinants in poultry production, yet it remains poorly understood by consumers and is rarely regulated. The welfare problems endemic to commercial broiler breeds including lameness, cardiac failure, and ascites are biological consequences of selection for extreme growth rates. These problems can be substantially reduced by selecting slower-growing breeds, as demonstrated by welfare-focused producers globally. Heritage and dual-purpose breeds offer genuinely different welfare outcomes that justify their higher production costs from a welfare perspective. Consumer willingness to pay premiums for heritage breed products creates the market signal that drives commercial breed selection toward better welfare outcomes.