PHOTO: LEX SALVERDA
RESEARCH ▶▶▶
Broiler welfare can be improved through market-driven initiatives
Pan-European research has shown that market-driven initiatives can improve broiler welfare. A study looked at two types of initiatives to ensure welfare in broiler production: legislation – under which all broiler production in a region or country must comply with legally defined welfare standards – and market-driven initiatives.
BY TONY MCDOUGAL T
he study covered that part of the production which must meet certain welfare standards and is sold with a specific label at a premium price, or as part of a minimum welfare standard defined by a retailer of
fast-food chain. While the effect of national legislation may be undermined by price competition from lower welfare im- ported products, the effect of market-driven initiatives may be limited by consumer unwillingness to pay the extra cost. The Danish study, led by Professor Peter Sandoe from the University of Copenhagen, compared broiler welfare require- ments in five European countries: Denmark, Sweden, Germa- ny, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, using a bench- mark method. A number of welfare dimensions covering the input features typically modified in broiler welfare initiatives, were defined.
Nearly 30 academic welfare experts graded the different lev- els within each dimension on a scale of 0-10 and then weighted the relative contribution of each dimension to over- all welfare on a 1-5 scale. The range of welfare scores covered stocking density, foot pad dermatitis initiatives, outdoor ac- cess, maximum flock size in the broiler house, use of rough- age, indoor air quality, light programmes and intensity, natu- ral sunlight, pecking and resting enhancement, thinning, catching and loading birds, as well as transport to slaughter.
Calculation By combining these values and weightings with an inventory
of existing welfare initiatives, the additional welfare generat- ed by each initiative was calculated. Together with informa- tion on national coverage of each initiative, the benchmark score for each country’s production and consumption of chicken meat was calculated. The results showed Sweden and Denmark achieved a much higher benchmark rating for na- tional production due to higher legal standards than any of the other three countries. The Netherlands and the UK achieved a benchmark score for national consumption of chicken at the same level as found in Sweden. However, this was also because market-driven ini- tiatives complemented more welfare-limited Dutch legisla- tion. The Dutch situation is different because consumers are not given a choice of fresh broiler meat – only meat based on production with enhanced welfare is on offer in supermar- kets. In other countries, such as Germany, Denmark and the United Kingdom, welfare-labelled meat will often lie next to unlabelled ‘standard’ meat on the cool counter, giving con- sumers a real choice between welfare chicken with a price premium and standard chicken sold at lower price. So, de- spite some uncertainties in the benchmark method, it ap- pears that market-driven initiatives can have a strong impact on improving broiler welfare by building on the standards achieved by animal welfare legislation.
The paper was published in Poultry Science. ▶ POULTRY WORLD | No. 5, 2022 31
Research shows that market- driven initiatives can have a strong impact on improving broiler welfare.
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