Shifting UK's poultry meat towards slower-growing breeds

Published 2023년 3월 2일

Tridge summary

The Royal Veterinary College (RVC) in the UK is conducting research to evaluate the potential shift towards better welfare broiler breeds in the UK's chicken meat industry. The study aims to understand the benefits and challenges of transitioning from fast-growing to slower-growing breeds, which are known to have improved welfare but come with higher costs and environmental impacts. The research will incorporate existing data and create an integrated assessment model to provide estimates for producers and society. The project also aims to enhance dialogue with global breeding companies to select for both high welfare and reasonable growth.

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Original content

Research is underway at the UK’s Royal Veterinary College (RVC) to provide a comprehensive analysis of the impacts of opportunities for and barriers to moving UK chicken meat production towards better welfare broiler breeds. Selection for fast growth has greatly increased the efficiency of broiler production, leading to the most widely consumed affordable protein across the globe. But multiple breed comparison studies have shown that slower-growing broilers have better welfare outcomes in terms of both health and natural behaviour than traditional fast-growing breeds. This has led to campaigns for producers to shift towards meeting the Better Chicken Commitment standards, but the RVC says that the vast majority of UK production (95%) still relies on fast-growing breeds. Only a few broiler breeder companies can undertake breeding for better welfare, but to achieve real world effect this must be driven by industry demand. A major barrier, according to the RVC, to switching to slower ...

Source: Poultryworld