Lighting regimes in commercial turkey production affect behaviour, sleep, welfare and health. Evidence supports minimum dark periods and appropriate light intensity for turkey wellbeing.
Turkey lighting management is often treated as a simple production variable rather than a welfare determinant. Near-continuous lighting prevents normal sleep, disrupts circadian physiology and elevates chronic stress. The darkness period is not merely a welfare concession - it is physiologically necessary for consolidation of the growth hormone pulse and immune system maintenance. Turkeys under appropriate lighting show more natural foraging, preening and social behaviours, and lower rates of the injurious feather-pecking that causes significant welfare harm in commercial flocks.