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What to know about slower-growing (or higher welfare) meat chicken breeds

Slower-growing chicken breeds can improve welfare by reducing the health problems linked to rapid growth, but genetics alone is not enough. Better welfare also depends on good housing, management, and strong standards, with industry and consumer support needed to help higher-welfare breeds become more widely available in Australia.

RSPCA Australia
Friday, 30 October 2026

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Slower-growing breeds of meat chickens are attracting increasing attention, particularly for their potential to improve animal welfare.

With around 750 million chickens raised in Australia each year, this is an important conversation.

Raising slower-growing breeds of chickens for meat reduces the welfare risks associated with the fast-growth of conventional breeds. Research shows that slower-growing breeds are better able to walk around, have better leg and foot health, feather condition, and survival rate, as well as greater activity and expression of behaviours such as foraging and perching.

These are significant welfare improvements that support ongoing efforts to introduce higher welfare genetics in Australia. However, we must be careful to not view breed labels or slower growth rate alone as a guarantee good animal welfare. Housing conditions and bird management also influence welfare outcomes and must remain part of the conversation on how to improve chicken welfare.

And while slower growth is an important progression and is strongly supported by the RSPCA, it’s also important to acknowledge it’s not a straightforward solution for all of the welfare issues that can impact meat chickens.

What does “slower growing” actually mean?

There is not yet a single, globally accepted definition of a slower-growing meat chicken.

The term ‘slower growing’ generally refers to breeds of meat chickens that have been genetically selected to gain weight more gradually than the conventional fast-growing breeds used in most commercial production. Chickens gaining less than 50 grams a day are often described as slower growing, while chickens growing between 51 and 60 grams a day are referred to as ‘moderate growing’. Conventional fast-growing breeds commonly gain more than 60 grams a day. Conventional chickens typically reach slaughter weight around 4-6 weeks of age, while slower-growing birds reach slaughter weight between 8-12 weeks of age.

The term is a useful as a general guide, but it leaves out some important variants, including that a chicken’s growth rate can also influenced by their genetics, feed, health, and farm management. This means that differing breeds under the same label as “slower growing” can have different growth rates and welfare outcomes. For these reasons, the RSPCA refer to non-conventional breeds as 'higher welfare' rather than slower growing.

What about welfare?

Overall, the evidence is encouraging. Compared with conventional fast-growing breeds, slower-growing chickens have lower mortality, fewer leg deformities, better mobility, less lameness, and fewer cases of footpad dermatitis and hock burn. Having greater mobility also gives chickens more opportunity to interact with their environment and express behaviours associated with positive welfare.

However, simply selecting breeds that grow slower is not the only measure of a bird’s welfare. In addition to slower growth, chickens raised in commercial conditions must actually achieve those improved welfare outcomes – in relation to mortality rate, general mobility, activity level, leg and foot health, and feather condition – to be considered ‘higher welfare’, slower-growing breeds.

Housing and management must also be suited to the specific needs of the breed. Poor litter quality, high stocking densities, poor air quality in sheds, lack of perches and environmental enrichment, and inadequate outdoor ranges are all factors that can compromise the welfare of any bird.

So, while bird genetics can reduce inherent welfare risks for chickens, it cannot compensate for poor or unsuitable conditions. In short, genetic selection for improved welfare must also be accompanied by good management and husbandry practices and appropriate infrastructure to support better welfare outcomes.

The uptake of slower-growing chickens in the UK and Europe

Let’s look at the uptake of slower-growing breeds through a global lens.

So far, the most successful transition has been in the Netherlands, where the meat industry announced this year the commitment to phase out all fast-growing chicken breeds and introduce slower-growing breeds by the end of 2027.

Elsewhere in Europe, slower-growing chickens are well-established under certain animal welfare assurance schemes; such as France’s Label Rouge, Beter Leven in the Netherlands, and RSPCA Assured in the United Kingdom.

But conventional fast-growing production remains widespread in meat chicken production across the world - simply because these birds, often kept at high stocking densities, grow faster and thereby reduce cost of production for farmers, and lower the end cost for the consumer.

Barriers to transitioning to slower-growing breeds in Australia may include higher production costs, less chickens raised in existing housing, potential environmental impacts, poor consumer knowledge, and uncertainty about consumer demand and willingness to pay.

These potential barriers can, however, be overcome as has been demonstrated by a large Norwegian poultry integrator that switched all their production to slower-growing meat chickens in 2018 and is producing the same amount of chicken meat with fewer chickens while reducing emissions year on year and at no additional cost to the consumer.

The Australian situation

Australia’s chicken meat supply chain is concentrated around a few large companies and designed mainly around conventional fast-growing breeds. As such, we currently have no slower-growing breeds of meat chickens being farmed or sold at a large commercial scale.

Two of the major meat chicken producers (Inghams and Baiada) have previously trialled farming slower-growing chickens, which were on sale for a period of time through both major supermarket chains, Coles and Woolworths. However, they did not attract sufficient consumer demand at that time to remain sustainable.

In addition, Australia’s strict biosecurity requirements, while designed to help protect our poultry from serious diseases that aren’t established here, make the process of importing new chicken breeds into the country a complex one.

Fertile eggs must come from approved sources and undergo risk assessment, quarantine, and disease testing. The imported genetics must then be bred through several generations to establish a reliable commercial supply, a process estimated to take about two to two-and-a-half years and requiring specialised breeding, hatchery and production facilities. Scaling up for commercial production therefore requires long-term investment and means that adoption cannot occur immediately.

A credible pathway forward

Improving the welfare of Australian meat chickens requires coordinated action from stakeholders across genetics, housing, management, and the supply chain. RSPCA Australia supports a pathway that improves conditions for every chicken now; while also creating the capacity and sustained market demand needed to introduce higher welfare, slower-growing breeds at commercial scale.

Higher-welfare breeds should be assessed using independent, measurable outcomes, including walking ability, leg and foot health, mortality, activity, and the expression of natural behaviours, in addition to growth rate. Housing and management conditions of these more active birds should include appropriate stocking density, good quality litter, suitable lighting, effective enrichment, sufficient perches and platforms, and outdoor areas with appropriate shelter and vegetation.

Achieving the introduction of higher welfare, slower-growing breeds into the market will require consistent demand from consumers. This means that raising consumer awareness as to the ongoing challenges with chicken meat production is integral to increasing the demand for higher welfare chicken meat products. Retailers can help by making higher-welfare chicken more visible on the supermarket shelf.

And, finally, with an increase in demand for higher welfare, slower-growing chicken, producers will be able to make the long-term commitments needed, importing genetics and raising higher welfare chickens at scale in suitable housing and with appropriate provisions.

Transition will take time, but it can be achievable in the right conditions with the right support.

The role of assurance programs like RSPCA Certified

It’s clear from the above, that while the RSPCA Certified scheme has achieved extraordinary change in the way Australian producers raise chicken for meat over many years, a certification program alone cannot solve the problem of fast growth.

For now, conventional fast-growing breeds continue to make up the majority of Australia’s meat chicken production. Most importantly, if RSPCA Australia did not work with producers using these breeds while suitable alternatives remain unavailable at a viable scale – hundreds of millions of chickens would miss out on the additional welfare requirements and provisions that can improve their lives now - such as dry litter, perching, lower stocking density and light to encourage movement - and help offset the welfare risks of their fast growth.

Through RSPCA Certified and the RSPCA Australia Standard that underpins the program, the RSPCA works to ensure that these birds too have the opportunity to live better lives. Importantly, the RSPCA Australia Standard for meat chickens now includes an ‘Enhanced welfare’ section specifically developed for producers wanting to raise higher-welfare, slower-growing meat chicken breeds and be recognised for it.

An important step towards better welfare, but not the only step

Higher-welfare, slower-growing meat chicken breeds are a promising opportunity to reduce serious welfare challenges associated with conventional meat chicken production – but they are not a fix all solution for every welfare issue impacting chickens. Significant and meaningful improvement will require slower-growing genetics alongside suitable housing, good management, strong welfare standards, locally relevant evidence and coordinated support across government, industry and consumers.

Ultimately, the welfare gains are real, the implementation challenges are real, and locally relevant evidence and coordinated commitment is needed to achieve the best animal welfare outcome for Australia’s chickens. Because every chicken deserves better welfare.

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