The genetics of good welfare
| Introduction | People | Projects | Statistics |
Modern broiler chickens (chickens grown for meat) have been heavily selected for a fast growth rate and a high meat yield, and their altered physiology has provoked accusations of poor welfare against the broiler ‘industry’
Every year 40 billion broilers are produced worldwide. The issue of their welfare is a priority for many concerned groups and, increasingly, consumers.
Professor Marian Stamp Dawkins in the Department of Zoology has spent much of her career applying the strict criteria of the best animal behaviour studies to the question of how to raise chickens humanely. Working with the Food Animal Initiative, commercial farmers who took over the running of the University Farm at Wytham in 2001, she ensures that her research pays attention to the economic imperatives that constrain the poultry farmer.
Their latest collaboration, funded by the Tubney Trust and the Farm Animal Welfare Trust, aims to breed a broiler chicken, using traditional selective breeding techniques, that is strong and healthy but that also satisfies the requirements of commercial chicken farmers. ‘We are starting with the aim of breeding birds that are particularly suited to the free-range and organic markets’, says Professor Dawkins. ‘We hope our work will set a precedent for genetic selection for all species in the future’.
But most of the UK’s 800 million broilers have no access to the outdoors at all and instead are kept in flocks of up to 70,000 birds in one house. Together with Professor Stephen Roberts of the Department of Engineering Science, Professor Dawkins is aiming to improve the welfare of these intensively kept birds using CCTV to remotely monitor the health and welfare of flocks on commercial farms. ‘Optical flow’ patterns in the way the flocks move have already been used to detect when a high percentage of the birds have difficulty walking, which is one of the major welfare problems in broilers. If the system became widely adopted, it could be used to monitor and set standards for broiler chickens on all farms.
