EU boosts chicken welfare standards

Brussels has unveiled new laws to improve the welfare of intensively reared chicken, the first pan European minimum rules to be applied in this sector.

Chicken meat production is the largest and least regulated area of meat production within the livestock industry, and the new rules are designed to improve welfare standards for intensively farmed chickens.

The EU produces 5.2 billion birds per year, yet consumers remain largely uniformed about how the chickens are reared.

The new laws, adopted on Monday, set out maximum stocking density of 30 kg live animals per square metre, access to litter, drinkers and feed as well as proper ventilation.

Buildings must have a certain level of light, a minimum of two daily inspections, and seriously injured or ill chickens should be treated or culled.

Detailed records of house temperatures, medical treatments and mortality rates must also be kept.

Animal welfare groups greeted the plans with caution, arguing that the new rules did not go far enough to tackle the genetic aspects of broiler chicken production.

According to Eurogroup for animal welfare, intensive genetic selection makes birds grow exceptionally quickly so that can be profitably killed at six weeks old - leading to severe health problems, lameness, and sores.

"Across the 25 member states some 3,000 birds die every five minutes under the combined stress of genetics and production," said Eurogroup director Sonja Van Tichelen.

"The [European] Commission proposal is only the beginning. We still have considerable work ahead of us."

In an attempt to allow meat producers some flexibility in their farming methods, checks to monitor animal welfare will be integrated into existing veterinary controls.

And farms that meet enhanced welfare conditions will be allowed to stock up to 38 kg per square metre if inspections at slaughter prove that the animals have not suffered welfare problems.

The proposals have to be approved by the European Parliament and national governments before they can become law.

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