But campaigners and MPs last night warned about the damaging effects of poor welfare and demanded rapid improvements.

Neil Parish MP, the chairman of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs select committee, said he wanted to see “immediate action” from the FSA and the industry to improve standards.

He said: “It is essential that we maintain the highest animal welfare standards at each stage of the poultry and livestock supply chain - including transportation. Poor welfare standards lead to poor consumer confidence in British produce, in both internal and overseas markets.”

The FSA has become increasingly concerned about welfare standards in Britain’s booming poultry sector, which the watchdog describes as having a “higher than average proportion of welfare non-compliances”. There have been a number of prosecutions and the FSA said it had recorded nearly 1,000 separate incidents linked to poultry transport during a five-month study last year.



Of the main welfare issues identified, 45 per cent of cases related to damage to transportation crates, ten per cent were due to foot-pad dermatitis (a skin condition linked to intensive rearing), a further ten per cent due to overstocking of crates and five per cent blamed on poor procedures during catching.

The FSA said the majority of incidents were linked to a small number of unnamed hauliers and it was working to improve systems to identify companies and individual drivers linked to welfare breaches as well as revising guidance on how to transport poultry.

Poultry is by far Britain’s most popular meat, accounting for nearly half of all meat consumed in the UK and the industry supports 79,000 jobs.

Most meat or “broiler” birds are reared in sheds in which producers say feed consumption, temperature, humidity and CO2 levels are carefully monitored to ensure optimal welfare conditions and minimise the use of interventions such as antibiotics.

But campaigners argue there is a strong case for less dense stocking (meaning more space for poultry) and slower-growing birds. The average growth period for a chicken has fallen from 63 days in the 1960s to the current level of 38 days, with the amount of feed required to produce a ready-for-slaughter bird halved.

The FSA data showed that millions of chickens and other poultry were found to be affected by diseases including hepatitis, dermatitis and cellulitis.