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Nutritional, Technological, and Environmental Strategies to Improve Health and Welfare...
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Nutritional, Technological, and Environmental Strategies to Improve Health and Welfare in Broiler Chickens

A Special Issue of Agriculture (ISSN 2077-0472) belonging to the section "Farm Animal Production".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 25 January 2027 | Viewed by 1367

Editor

Dr. Arkadiusz Matuszewski

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Animal Environment Biology, Institute of Animal Sciences, Warsaw University of Life Sciences, Ciszewskiego 8, 02-786 Warsaw, Poland
Interests: animal environment; animal welfare; poultry housing; in ovo technologies; animal by-product management; sustainability

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The rapid growth of modern broiler chickens and the demands of intensive production systems, combined with evolving societal and regulatory expectations, have made health and welfare improvements a major challenge. Multiple factors—including nutrition, housing, environment, and management—interact to shape broiler health and welfare.

This Special Issue focuses on nutritional, technological, and environmental strategies for improving the health and welfare of broiler chickens. Nutritional approaches supporting gut health, metabolic balance, and the organism’s ability to maintain homeostasis remain essential. Technological advancements in poultry housing design and monitoring systems present new opportunities to enhance housing conditions and promote animal health and welfare. In parallel, effective environmental management, including regulation of microclimatic conditions, litter quality, air quality, and stocking density, plays a key role in reducing stress, disease risk, and welfare-related disorders.

The Special Issue offers a platform for cutting-edge, multidisciplinary research that presents innovative solutions to enhance broiler health and welfare. We welcome original research articles that analyze both individual and combined effects of nutritional, technological, and environmental interventions under experimental and production conditions, along with comprehensive review papers that synthesize current knowledge in this field.

Dr. Arkadiusz Matuszewski
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Agriculture is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • broiler chickens
  • animal health
  • animal welfare
  • poultry production
  • animal nutrition
  • housing technologies
  • environmental management
  • precision livestock farming
  • sustainability

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Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

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33 pages, 11228 KB  
Article
Assessing Production and Economic Impacts of Good Practices for Improving Animal Welfare in Broiler Chicken Rearing
by Edward Majewski, Monika Gębska, Jakub Urban, Ingrid de Jong, Lisa Morgans, Mukhtar Muhammad, Paolo Ferrari, Annunziata Palamara, Stefan Gunnarsson, Natalia Majo and Anna Grontkowska
Agriculture 2026, 16(18), 2009; https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture16182009 - 18 Sep 2026
Viewed by 103
Abstract
Improving animal welfare is an important objective of the European Union’s Common Agricultural Policy, as well as national regulations and voluntary certification schemes. Drawing on research conducted within the BroilerNet project, this paper presents an assessment of the production and economic effects of [...] Read more.
Improving animal welfare is an important objective of the European Union’s Common Agricultural Policy, as well as national regulations and voluntary certification schemes. Drawing on research conducted within the BroilerNet project, this paper presents an assessment of the production and economic effects of good practices in broiler farming identified in 13 participating EU countries. The methodology involved defining key challenges related to animal welfare, health, and environmental impacts; identifying practices already applied under commercial conditions; conducting preliminary assessments by national expert panels; and selecting the most promising practices, referred to as Champions, for final economic evaluation. The assessment used gross margin analysis and budgeting techniques considering additional implementation costs and potential production benefits. Typical farm models representing different flock sizes were developed. The analysis of six Champions presented in the paper revealed varied outcomes depending on implementation costs, expected production benefits, and the assumptions adopted under optimistic and pessimistic scenarios. According to farmers’ observations, supported by the available literature, all assessed practices improved animal welfare. Financial benefits varied with implementation costs, achievable productivity gains, and production scale, with the smallest farms benefiting less. Given the generally low implementation costs, all assessed practices merit wider dissemination. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Nutritional, Technological, and Environmental Strategies to Improve Health and Welfare in Broiler Chickens)
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24 pages, 13354 KB  
Article
Effects of Superabsorbent Polymer Inclusion in Broiler Litter on Welfare, Litter Properties, Production Performance, and Meat Quality
by Arkadiusz Matuszewski, Damian Bień, Wiktoria Cieśla, Sławomir Jaworski, Agata Lange, Jakub Urban, Patrycja Kostusiak, Ewa Skibniewska and Arkadiusz Szpicer
Agriculture 2026, 16(17), 1804; https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture16171804 - 22 Aug 2026
Viewed by 423
Abstract
Broiler litter quality is an important determinant of animal welfare, environmental conditions, and production efficiency. This study evaluated the effects of incorporating a biodegradable superabsorbent polymer (SAP) into chopped straw (CS) litter on broiler welfare, production performance, litter characteristics, environmental conditions, and meat [...] Read more.
Broiler litter quality is an important determinant of animal welfare, environmental conditions, and production efficiency. This study evaluated the effects of incorporating a biodegradable superabsorbent polymer (SAP) into chopped straw (CS) litter on broiler welfare, production performance, litter characteristics, environmental conditions, and meat quality. A total of 1000 Ross 308 broiler chickens were randomly allocated to four treatments: a control group (CON) and three groups receiving SAP at 30, 60, or 100 g/m2 in the pen (H30, H60, or H100). Birds were reared for 42 days under commercial conditions. Growth performance, welfare indicators, gaseous emissions, litter characteristics, slaughter traits, and breast muscle quality were assessed. SAP supplementation had no adverse effects on body weight, feed conversion ratio, mortality, slaughter performance, or meat quality. Although litter dry matter content was lower in the H60 and H100 due to the water-retention capacity, NH3 concentration at the bird level was significantly reduced. SAP supplementation also improved selected animal welfare indicators, particularly by increasing the proportion of birds with score 0 of footpad dermatitis (FPD) from 46–59% to 69–79%. These findings indicate that biodegradable SAPs represent a promising litter amendment for improving broiler welfare and housing conditions without compromising production performance or meat quality. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Nutritional, Technological, and Environmental Strategies to Improve Health and Welfare in Broiler Chickens)
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Review

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50 pages, 2838 KB  
Review
Plant-Derived Feed Additives Modulate the Microbiota–Gut–Immune Axis in Broiler Chickens: From Intestinal Homeostasis to Physiological Resilience
by Anna Rygało-Galewska and Jakub Urban
Agriculture 2026, 16(17), 1842; https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture16171842 - 27 Aug 2026
Viewed by 482
Abstract
The withdrawal of antibiotic growth promoters has fundamentally changed the priorities of poultry nutrition, shifting attention from growth promotion towards maintenance of intestinal homeostasis and physiological resilience, defined here as the capacity of the organism to maintain or restore functional homeostasis when exposed [...] Read more.
The withdrawal of antibiotic growth promoters has fundamentally changed the priorities of poultry nutrition, shifting attention from growth promotion towards maintenance of intestinal homeostasis and physiological resilience, defined here as the capacity of the organism to maintain or restore functional homeostasis when exposed to biological, nutritional, or environmental challenges. Although plant-derived feed additives have attracted considerable interest as natural alternatives, their biological activity is still commonly interpreted as a collection of independent antimicrobial, antioxidant, or immunomodulatory effects. This fragmented perspective may not fully capture the interconnected and context-dependent nature of their effects across experimental models. This review develops an integrated conceptual framework in which phytogenic feed additives are considered as potential systems-level modulators of the microbiota–gut–immune axis rather than as isolated sources of bioactive compounds. We synthesise experimental evidence from 155 broiler chickens identified through searches of PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, and Google Scholar from database inception to June 2026, covering microbial ecology, intestinal morphology and barrier function, microbial metabolites, redox balance, inflammatory signalling, and innate and adaptive immunity across infectious, nutritional, and environmental challenge models. Particular attention is given to the different levels of evidence provided by culture-based and targeted analyses, microbiome profiling, integrated host–microbiome studies, and multi-omics approaches. The available evidence suggests that structurally diverse phytochemicals can influence overlapping regulatory networks linking microbial ecology, epithelial barrier integrity, redox balance, inflammatory signalling, and immune function. However, the magnitude and direction of these responses vary substantially according to botanical source, phytochemical composition, dose, formulation, duration of supplementation, animal genotype, basal diet, and experimental challenge. Collectively, the available evidence supports a paradigm shift from compound-centred interpretation towards network-based regulation of host homeostasis. Within this context, physiological resilience refers to the capacity to maintain or restore functional homeostasis in response to biological, nutritional, or environmental challenges. It may emerge from coordinated interactions among the intestinal microbiota, the epithelial barrier, and the immune system. Phytogenic supplementation may contribute to resilience by simultaneously modulating several components of this network, although causal relationships remain incompletely established for many proposed mechanisms. This systems-level perspective provides a framework for integrating heterogeneous evidence and for identifying priorities for future research, including dose–response relationships, phytochemical combinations, longitudinal multi-omics approaches, and validation under commercially relevant production conditions, with implications for precision poultry nutrition. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Nutritional, Technological, and Environmental Strategies to Improve Health and Welfare in Broiler Chickens)
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