Poultry: Animal Welfare
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what data the Department holds on mortality, lameness and culling rates in conventional broiler flocks in England in each of the last five years; and what steps the Department is taking to reduce the routine prophylactic use of antibiotics in intensive poultry production.
Answered by Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
The Government does not hold such data on lameness and culling rates in conventional broiler flocks in England. The government receives data from the Food Standards Agency on Cumulative Daily Mortality Rates (CDMR) for broiler chickens.
The Average Yearly CDMR was 3.57% in 2020, 3.65% in 2021, 3.76% in 2022, 3.53% in 2023, 3.39% in 2024, 3.38% in 2025. The figure for 2023 represents the period of 1 April to 31 December, this is the only Average Yearly CDMR data that the government holds for that year.
The Government is committed to reducing unnecessary use of antibiotics in animals while safeguarding animal welfare. The Veterinary Medicines Regulations prohibit the routine use of antibiotics to compensate for inadequate husbandry, management or biosecurity, and restrict prophylactic antibiotic use to exceptional circumstances only, under veterinary oversight and subject to additional legal requirements. We continue to work closely with the poultry sector to promote high standards of biosecurity, disease prevention and antimicrobial stewardship.
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