Carter, E. 2018. Updated Code of Practice for the welfare of meat chickens and meat breeding chickens in England. Animal Welfare 27(2), 181-185.

Much of the content in the 2018 Code is similar to that found in previous guidance documents: the 2002 Code of Practice for the Welfare of Meat Chickens and Meat Breeding Chickens, and the 2011 Interim Guidance for Keepers of Conventionally Reared Meat Chickens in Relation to the Welfare of Farmed Animals (England) Regulations, as amended by the Welfare of Farmed Animals (England) (amendment) Regulations 2010. The 2018 Code combines information from both of these documents and is more user-friendly in style. It has also been updated where necessary, taking into account new legislation and advances in scientific and veterinary knowledge. The Code covers all husbandry systems across all sectors of the meat chicken production industry (including parent and grandparent breeding birds) and it is intended that the Code “help all those who care for meat chickens and meat breeding chickens to practise good standards of stockmanship to safeguard chicken welfare”. Both the Five Freedoms and the Three Essentials of Stockmanship are provided at the beginning of the document and it is suggested that they “form the guiding principles for the assessment of welfare within any system”.