Duck meat production is expanding globally, particularly in Asia. The welfare of farmed ducks deserves attention as the industry scales, with key concerns around water access, breed selection, and slaughter.
Farmed ducks have strong behavioral drives related to their aquatic evolutionary heritage that intensive production systems routinely fail to accommodate. Access to open water sufficient for bathing is not a luxury preference but a fundamental welfare need - ducks without bathing water develop eye infections, skin problems, and behavioral frustration from the inability to perform essential preening and thermoregulation behaviors. The rapid growth rates of modern Pekin ducks create the same musculoskeletal and metabolic welfare problems seen in broiler chickens. Foie gras and live plucking represent extreme welfare abuses in niche production sectors. Comprehensive welfare standards for ducks are less developed than for other poultry, creating a regulatory gap that leaves most farmed ducks without adequate protection.