Faster growing broilers can still have good welfare

If the market for slow growing or heritage broiler breeds becomes something more than just a niche market, this would be a major step backwards for the poultry industry. The broiler industry has become a model of efficiency for animal agriculture and a large portion of the credit goes to poultry breeders who have provided producers with birds that grow faster using less feed for each successive generation. Along with the improved feed conversion and growth rates, broiler growers are also raising flocks with reduced mortality rates on the farm, less plant condemnation and better deboning yields. With this kind of steady performance improvement, what could be wrong? Some animal rights activist groups are pushing for broiler producers and chicken buyers to switch to slower growing breeds because they claim that the welfare of these birds is better than it is for modern broiler strains.  Essentially, Simkhovich sees genetic selection exercised by poultry breeders over the last few decades as the root of the animal welfare and sustainability problem for the broiler industry. Slower-growing birds are seen as the solution for all of the industry’s problems, including maintaining flock health without the use of antibiotics. Fortunately for poultry producers, Simkhovich has it all wrong. Selective breeding isn’t the problem, it is a big part of the solution to issues that she has raised. Balanced genetic selection, where the parent stock of future generations is chosen based on welfare and meat quality traits along with feed efficiency, growth rate and yield characteristics, combined with improved husbandry will result in future generations of birds that can outperform slow growing and heritage breeds on objective welfare measurements.