The shift from fast-growing broiler breeds to slower-growing alternatives is the single most impactful welfare reform available to the chicken industry globally.
Conventional fast-growing broiler breeds represent a welfare crisis embedded at the genetic level of the chicken industry. Selective breeding for rapid breast meat growth has created birds chronically prone to lameness, cardiac failure, and muscle disease. Birds in the final weeks before slaughter often struggle to walk, stand, or access water and feed. Breed reform to slower-growing genetics is evidence-based and achieves welfare improvements that enrichment or space allowance changes alone cannot match.