Welfare Auditing and Certification for Broiler Chickens

Abstract

The chicken broiler industry has moved deliberately in developing guidelines and audit procedures for best animal welfare practices. The National Chicken Council (NCC) and its member companies, with the assistance of numerous organizations and academic professionals, have made tremendous progress in identifying welfare issues in broilers, defining these in the guidelines, and taking steps to ensure compliance by a proper audit process and documentation. Even though the many entities involved in the welfare process might have been confusing initially, individual companies and customers now have choices to make in the audit process that, if wisely done, will document humane practices or the need for changes to improve them.Now, NCC and its member companies are looking forward to an orderly and professional welfare and audit process. They are encouraging adequate training for auditors and the use of audit guidelines that are based on a respectable knowledge of the science and industry practices. NCC companies are interested in and will support audits and auditors who are qualified for the job at hand, even though such auditors may arrive by a number of different routes. Regardless of any initial confusion within this process, broiler companies will go to almost any lengths to satisfy reasonable needs and demands of their customers, knowing that the ultimate implementation of the welfare process depends on what the customer needs. Also, we realize that the final consumer eventually pays for any added service or feature, and it is in the interest of everyone along this product-process chain to keep animal welfare demands reasonable, affordable, and based on what has been proven to be most humane in both science and practice.