Breed selection is the single most impactful welfare lever in commercial poultry production — determining growth rate, disease susceptibility, and behavioral capacity across billions of birds.
Commercial broiler breeding has created animals so optimized for rapid growth that their bodies are chronically compromised. Skeletal deformities, cardiac failure, and ascites are common consequences of extreme growth selection. Transitioning to breeds with lower growth rates — even modestly slower — dramatically reduces these welfare problems. Breed selection sits upstream of all other welfare interventions: better housing cannot compensate for genetics that cause chronic suffering.