Welfare

To safeguard the welfare of meat chickens, all poultry farms and companies along the supply chain practice good welfare as per the standards for handling, housing, transport, slaughter and management.

On farm, chickens are protected from predation, disease and injury. Shed conditions such as temperature, airflow and humidity are monitored and kept at optimal levels to provide meat chickens with a comfortable and stress-free environment where they can exhibit normal behaviours. Meat chickens are also supplied with quality water sources and feed appropriate to their age and physiological needs.

Industry welfare standards

The welfare of meat chickens is important to chicken farmers, processors and consumers.

The National Animal Welfare Standard for the Chicken Meat Industry and the Guidance material, detail the welfare requirements for meat chickens and breeders during the stages of production and processing. An Industry best management practice welfare manual supplements these documents.

Research

Research is undertaken to enhance the welfare of meat chickens. Current and recent welfare-related research projects funded by the AgriFutures Australia Chicken Meat Program include:

• Optimising ranging behaviour by free-range meat chickens – final report (PRJ-011546)
• Using vocalisations to modify chicken behaviour – project snapshot (PRJ-012188)
• Resilient plants for free range chicken meat farms – final report (PRJ-01084)
• Novel detection of chicken welfare using machine vision – project summary (PRJ-010646)
• Effective stunning and slaughter for poultry training workshops – project summary (PRJ-012200)
• Chicken welfare and carcass quality during transport – project summary (PRJ-010961)
• Electrolyte supplementation to alleviate the adverse effects of severe heat stress – final report (PRJ-010953)
• Review of evidence to underpin development of Welfare Standards and Guidelines: A focused review of science-based evidence on the welfare of Australian meat chickens (PRJ-009533)
• Effect of an in-shed sprinkler cooling system on temperature, relative humidity, water usage, litter conditions, live weight and mortality – final report (PRJ-010245)
• Causal factors of ‘wet litter’ in chicken-meat production – project summary (PRJ-009184)

Chicken welfare goes hand-in-hand with chicken health and biosecurity—visit our health and biosecurity pages for more information.

For more detailed information related to meat chicken welfare, see also the news article on how Camera technology offers new vision for chicken welfare and the webinar on Current practices to predict flock health, enhance performance and improve sustainability.

Keep up to date

To keep up to date with the latest industry insights, check back regularly and subscribe to Beak to Beak.

This website is administered on behalf of the AgriFutures Chicken Meat Program.

For more information about the AgriFutures Chicken Meat Program, click here.