Using enrichment tools in the poultry house can help improve animal welfare, but specific enrichment tools are not one-size-fits-all.
“There’s a lot that can go into a decision as to ‘if we’re going to use an enrichment, how are we going to best do that for the birds that we are raising?’” said Dr. Katy Tarrant, associate professor, Fresno State University, and International Poultry Welfare Alliance (IPWA) chair, at the 2025 Georgia Precision Poultry Farming Conference.
Monitoring poultry’s key welfare indicators (KWI) can help determine if an enrichment tool is performing as intended. KWIs are scalable and measurable outcomes that help make real-time welfare assessments. These indicators include litter quality, air quality, foot pad health, injury, flock condition, mortality, and gait and lameness, according to Tarrant. Read more