Key Highlights :
The use of fast-growing 'frankenchickens' has been met with a legal challenge due to the horrific analysis over their deaths and welfare by a prestigious Scottish agricultural college. Animal welfare campaigners are fighting to get the genetically engineered fast growing breeds banned due to their serious health problems caused by the speed of growth. It has emerged that the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) commissioned a study into the poor state of the animals' health by Dr Laura Dixon, senior lecturer in animal and veterinary sciences at Scotland's Rural College (SRUC).
The RSPCA is concerned that millions of chickens are being bred to grow at an unnaturally fast rate on factory farms and that the majority are suffering from shocking cruelty with accelerated growth affecting their internal organs. The trial revealed that unexpected deaths including culls amongst fast growing birds doubled compared to the slower growing chickens. Open Cages discovered chickens that die prematurely as a result of their rapid growth in an investigation in England.
In general, the fast growing chickens had significantly poorer health including greater leg, hock and plumage issues and breast muscle disease. The RSPCA said in its analysis of the trial that it was clear that conventional meat chicken breeding programmes have "serious inherent flaws and lead to poor health and welfare". It is estimated that the ‘broilers’, are by far the most numerously produced farm animals reared for meat, with more than a billion being slaughtered each year in the UK producing over 1.6m tonnes of meat a year. It is estimated that 94% of the 'broilers' are the faster growing breed that are slaughtered at five to six weeks of age. A domestic chicken typically lives for seven to nine years.
The results of the Scottish trials produced in 2020 involved 1600 birds from four fast and slower growing breeds and were approved by the Animal Welfare and Ethics Review Body of the SRUC. Any birds found to be unwell were closely monitored and given appropriate veterinary treatment as necessary or, if their welfare had significantly decreased, culled. The fast-growing chickens were found to be less active – spending less time walking and standing, and more time feeding and sitting. Towards the end of the trial, when the birds were 37 days of age, the slower growing breed spent 51% of the time sitting compared to 71–74% for the fast-growing birds. They spent less time engaged in "enrichment type" behaviour such as foraging, perching and dust-bathing.
The study found that the so-called frankenchickens were more efficient at converting feed into body weight and, due to being slaughtered at a younger age, more birds can be reared per year within a commercial chicken house which have significant economic benefits. But the RSPCA said there are significant inefficiencies associated with producing meat from the fast-growing breeds that, if taken into account, would have a considerable impact on the cost of production and could result in higher production costs compared to the rearing of "higher welfare breed". It also said the study showed that the meat quality was "significantly poorer" amongst the fast-growing birds. It said the fast-growing chicken production line is a "wasteful and ethically questionable business" with higher numbers of deaths and poorer meat quality "bringing into question the sustainability of this enterprise".
The welfare charity said new legislation was urgently required to enforce a meaningful change in broiler genetics to ensure breeding companies are mandated to "prioritise bird health and welfare over performance parameters, such as growth rate". Dr Dixon in her analysis said that the difference in production costs between the slow and faster growing chickens "may not be that large" when considering the difference in mortality rates. And she said that breast meat from slower growing birds has been found to be higher in protein and lower in fat levels than in faster growers which it is felt could encourage increased consumer purchasing.
Animal welfare campaigners who described the analysis as "horrific" are considering their latest moves in legal challenges over the legality of the fast-growing breeds. Lawyers for The Humane League claim the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs’ (Defra’s) policy on broiler chickens breached the welfare of farmed animals regulations 2007 (Wofar), which state: “Animals may only be kept for farming purposes if it can reasonably be expected, on the basis of their genotype or phenotype, that they can be kept without any detrimental effect on their health or welfare.”
The horrific analysis of the fast-growing 'frankenchickens' has highlighted the need for new legislation to enforce a meaningful change in broiler genetics, and an increase in public education about the housing, management, behaviour and welfare of broiler chickens. The welfare impact of reduced behavioural expression should not be underestimated as it can have a significant psychological impact. Chickens should be able to behave like chickens, with the ability to exhibit behaviours natural to the species. Any legal challenge in England could be taken up in Scotland, and it is hoped that the welfare of these birds can be improved.