Bridging the gap: a comparative analysis of industry approaches and scientific perspectives on broiler health and welfare in Europe

For the European broiler sector, the social license to produce is under pressure. Hence, farmers need to adopt a series of innovative practices. The thematic network project BroilerNet created a network to promote the adoption of ready-to-use innovative best practices on European broiler farms. Stakeholders from 13 participating countries identified 16 sector priority challenges for animal health and animal welfare and submitted 232 good practices to address them. International experts selected five best practices per challenge, which were multilingually disseminated.
In this case study, we aimed to assess whether the BroilerNet output aligns with welfare consequences and recommendations of the recent scientific opinion on broiler welfare of the European Food and Safety Authority (EFSA). In 2023, EFSA published a report highlighting, among others, 16 welfare consequences of current production systems for broiler chickens and 76 recommendations to overcome them. We investigated convergence and divergence between the BroilerNet and EFSA results.
This comparative analysis revealed that 13 welfare consequences (81%) converged with at least one BroilerNet priority sector challenge. Therefore, industry and scientific perspectives seem to largely align when it comes to animal health and animal welfare challenges. Furthermore, 55 EFSA recommendations (71%) converged with at least one of the 78 BroilerNet best practices (i.e. 33 direct convergences and 37 indirect convergences). Nevertheless, 39% of the best practices in BroilerNet were not contemplated by EFSA.
Overall, several best practices aligned with scientific recommendations (e.g. elevated platforms, on-farm hatching, and farmer training). The biggest gaps for broiler welfare improvement relate to reducing stocking densities, providing covered verandas and/or outdoor access, and the use of slower growing genetics, as recommended by EFSA but not identified as best practices in BroilerNet. The reasons for the existing gap may include market demand and small margins that seem to leave little room for rather expensive or risky investments.