Broiler parent birds - the breeding stock of commercial broilers - are feed-restricted to prevent obesity. This creates chronic hunger that is one of the most welfare-compromising practices in commercial poultry.
Broiler parent feed restriction represents chronic, severe hunger that persists throughout the birds' productive lives. This is not intermittent food scarcity but a sustained state of motivational frustration where birds are physiologically driven to seek food they are systematically denied. The welfare severity is high - restricted birds consume bedding, show increased aggression, and develop abnormal behaviours driven by hunger. This welfare problem is inherent to the fast-growth genetics of the commercial broiler industry. Addressing it requires breed reform that reduces the growth-reproduction incompatibility that makes restriction necessary.