Induced molting extends laying hen productive life, but the procedures used impose welfare costs including nutritional restriction and stress on birds already living in intensive confinement.
Feed withdrawal molting subjected hens to days of starvation - acute suffering in food-motivated birds that showed distress, elevated mortality, and increased Salmonella shedding that reflected immune system compromise. Alternative molting using low-nutrient feed causes less acute suffering but still involves significant nutritional restriction and the physiological stress of forced reproductive system shutdown. The economic rationale - extending the profitable laying period - comes at a direct welfare cost to the animals involved. Even under the improved alternative protocols that replaced feed withdrawal, molting represents a deliberate imposition of stress on birds that are already living in welfare-compromised intensive systems.