Commercial turkey production faces significant welfare challenges related to selective breeding for rapid growth, which causes similar problems to those seen in broiler chickens.
Commercial turkey breeding has created animals so extreme in conformation that they cannot reproduce naturally and struggle to move freely. The welfare implications parallel those of fast-growing broiler chickens: skeletal pain, cardiovascular stress and an inability to perform natural behaviours. Turkeys are actually quite cognitively complex birds that in better conditions show curiosity, social play and individual personalities. The intensification of turkey production has resulted in animals that spend their entire lives in pain from skeletal disorders in barren conditions that prevent any expression of natural behaviour. Welfare reform in turkey production lags significantly behind even the modest progress seen in broiler production.