National Chicken Council Releases its Most Comprehensive Guidelines to Date for Well-Being of Broiler Chickens

Jan 11, 2023

Consumers want to be sure that all animals being raised for food are treated with respect and are properly cared for during their lives. The people and companies involved in raising chickens for food share the public’s concern.

To assist chicken producers and processors in this effort, the National Chicken Council (NCC) in 1999 developed the NCC Broiler Welfare Guidelines and Audit Checklist which have been widely adopted by chicken farmers and processors to ensure all chickens are being properly cared for and treated humanely. Annually reviewed, the guidelines cover every phase of a chicken’s life and offer the most up-to-date recommendations for the proper treatment and humane care of broiler chickens – those chickens raised for meat.

The guidelines include:

The identification of Key Welfare Indicators (KWIs) including paw/footpad health, gait scoring, effective processing parameters, and minimizing leg/wing injuries;
Whistleblower protection;
Additional focus on training programs for proper handling;
More documentation and monitoring of various practices;
A more streamlined auditing tool for ease of auditing;
An increased focus on bird behavior, objective measures and welfare outcomes; and
Updated scoring guides developed by the American Association of Avian Pathologists (AAAP).

NCC’s guidelines were updated with assistance from an academic advisory panel consisting of poultry welfare experts and veterinarians from across the United States and were recently certified by the Professional Animal Auditor Certification Organization (PAACO), a leading authority on animal welfare auditing who provides high quality training and certification credentials for auditors and audits.

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Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.