Ducks are highly motivated to access water for bathing and swimming - a fundamental need that conventional duck farming fails to provide. Welfare standards are improving in some markets but intensive duck farming remains largely unregulated.
The intensity of ducks' motivation for water access makes water deprivation in conventional farming a significant welfare problem. Ducks denied bathing water attempt to bathe using drinker systems, show eye irritation and feather condition deterioration, and are unable to fulfil a fundamental species-specific behaviour. Providing bathing water requires management of wet litter and disease risk, but welfare solutions exist and are implemented in higher welfare systems. The lack of duck-specific welfare legislation in most countries allows extreme confinement without meaningful scrutiny.