Efficiency of growing of chicken broilers under conditions of compliance with EU rules of welfare

Abstract

The research focused on the effect of the application of the EU welfare rules on the technical-economic results achieved in a chicken broiler breeding farm. In this sense, three rearing halls identical in the usable area and technical equipment were studied, which were populated with day-old chicks Ross-308 following the densities imposed by the annual European funding program, as follows: batch Lm = 19 chickens/m2 (mandatory minimum requirements); batch Lexp-1 = 17 chickens/m2 (density reduced by 10% compared to the minimum requirements); batch Lexp-2 = 16 chickens/m2 (density reduced by 15% compared to the minimum requirements). The level of production indicators was directly influenced by the density ensured, an aspect highlighted by the values calculated for the European Production Efficiency Factor and, respectively, for the European Broiler Index, which was much higher in the lot with only 16 chickens/m2 (Lexp-2). The conclusion of the study was that the economic efficiency of chicken meat production farms affiliated with the annual European funding program strictly depends on the allocations received, as there are no price differences compared to farms that do not comply with welfare norms.