Lighting management in broiler chicken houses significantly affects behavior, rest, and health. Evidence-based lighting programs improve welfare by ensuring adequate rest periods and reducing stress-related behaviors.
Lighting management in broiler production is an overlooked but significant welfare issue. Chickens, like all vertebrates, have evolved biological rhythms calibrated to light-dark cycles. Disrupting these rhythms through excessive lighting causes sleep deprivation and circadian stress that compounds other welfare challenges like fast growth rates and high stocking density. Broilers need adequate dark periods to rest, which is particularly important given that leg problems from fast growth make rest more necessary. Welfare-centered lighting programs provide minimum 6-8 hours darkness, use appropriate light intensities that allow natural behavior without inducing fear, and include gradual dimming transitions. These changes are low-cost and implementable without other system changes.