How feed restriction practices in broiler breeder flocks cause chronic hunger and how the industry is working to develop better solutions.
Broiler breeder welfare represents a profound ethical dilemma created by extreme genetic selection: the genes that make broiler chickens commercially viable also make their parents unable to survive healthy lives without chronic feed restriction. This is not an unavoidable fact of nature but a consequence of breeding decisions - and it can in principle be reversed through redirected selection. In the meantime, broiler breeders experience chronic hunger throughout their productive lives. The welfare cost per bird is high and the number of birds affected globally is in the hundreds of millions. Alternative feeding strategies offer partial relief but the fundamental solution requires genetic reform.