WHAT HAPPENED: NCC has released the most detailed update to its Broiler Welfare Guidelines and Audit Checklist since December 2022, and the guidelines have now been certified by the Professional Animal Auditor Certification Organization (PAACO).
WHAT ARE THE GUIDELINES? Industry-wide standards for the humane treatment, care, and processing of broiler chickens. First developed by NCC in 1999, the guidelines cover every phase of a broiler chicken’s life, including:
- Hatchery Operations: Guidelines for the proper handling, temperature control, and biosecurity of newly hatched chicks.
- Growout Operations: Standards for housing, nutrition, lighting, air quality, and daily flock husbandry.
- Catching and Transportation: Detailed protocols to minimize injuries and stress during loading and transport to the processing plant.
- Processing Operations: Standards for humane stunning methods (including electrical and Controlled Atmospheric Stunning – CAS) to ensure unconsciousness prior to slaughter.
- Abuse and Audit Failure: Zero-tolerance policies for animal abuse and strict consequences for failing an on-site audit.
The guidelines continue to emphasize measurable Key Welfare Indicators (KWIs) such as mobility, insensibility at slaughter, and wing and leg injuries.
WHO IS PAACO? The leading, non-profit coalition established in 2004 that sets standards of excellence in animal welfare auditing. It promotes the humane treatment of animals by providing professional training and certification for auditors across the swine, dairy, poultry, beef cattle, and feedlot industries.
WHAT’S NEW IN THE NCC GUIDELINES:
- A new dedicated section on Controlled Atmospheric Stunning (CAS) with standards separate from electrical stunning.
- Expanded lighting verification checks.
- New requirements for hand and mechanical catching programs.
- A required routine stunning-equipment-check program with a written emergency plan
- Reorganized language throughout — including replacing “poultry” with “broiler” to more precisely reflect scope.
NCC’s TAKE: “These updated guidelines reflect our industry’s ongoing commitment to continuous improvement, grounded in the best available science,” said Ashley Peterson, Ph.D., NCC Senior Vice President of Scientific and Regulatory Affairs. “Adding a dedicated section for Controlled Atmospheric Stunning gives companies using that technology a clear, fully scored set of standards, while our new requirements for routine stunning equipment checks and emergency response planning help ensure consistent, humane treatment of birds at every stage. We’re grateful to the veterinarians, poultry scientists, and auditors who helped shape this update.”
WHAT’S NEXT: NCC requests that auditors wait until at least October 1, 2026, to start auditing to the new 2026 NCC Broiler Welfare Guidelines and Audit Checklist. Until then, auditors should continue to use the 2022 NCC Broiler Welfare Guidelines and Audit Checklist. This will provide industry time to make any necessary updates. In addition, NCC has begun the process of updating our welfare guidelines for broiler breeders.
Tyson Chickens at a farm in Prairie Grove.
Photo by Beth Hall
