Up to half of the fastest-growing chicken breeds are at risk of dying or needing to be culled due to welfare issues, according to a leading charity.
Research by Scotland’s Rural College, commissioned by the RSPCA, compared the health, welfare and production characteristics of the three fastest-growing meat chicken breeds used most extensively worldwide with a widely used, commercially viable slower-growing higher-welfare breed. It found that up to 49% of faster-growing birds could die or should be culled due to welfare issues such as lameness compared with 16% of the slower-growing birds.
The study also showed that up to 78% of the fast-growing birds were likely to have poor quality meat due to white striping, which results in fatty deposits, compared with 10% for the slower-growing breed, and up to 23% had a condition known as wooden breast where muscle cells had died, compared with just 1% of the slower-growing breed.
The RSPCA said the research ran contrary to arguments that intensive systems used to produce chicken meat are more sustainable than higher welfare systems. “This new, independent research shows that conventional production with fast-growing breeds is potentially very wasteful with farmers facing the loss of up to nearly half of their flock due to increased mortality and culling for poor leg health,” said Kate Parkes, the charity’s chicken welfare specialist.
Parkes noted that birds with poor leg health are not always culled, and meat with white striping and wooden breast is still sold to consumers. “The cost of ‘standard’ chicken meat is being kept artificially low due to some of these issues not being adequately addressed and, as such, the rearing of fast-growing breeds seems to be a false economy, as well as presenting a serious welfare issue,” she added.
Last week, a report from the Eating Better alliance concluded that poultry production is spiralling out of control. “We need to call out that further growth of chicken production is not a health or sustainability solution,” said executive director Simon Billing.
