Denmark wants to ban ‘turbo chickens’

The Danish government wants to ban a fast-growing breed known as “turbo chickens,” setting up another clash with the farm sector over animal welfare.

“We can see that there are widespread problems with the welfare of turbo chickens," Danish Animal Welfare Minister Christian Rabjerg Madsen told news channel TV2 this week. "They simply grow too fast for their bodies to keep up."

The move, which would be first in the world, is the latest in a series of new restrictions for the country's farmers. The center-left coalition government, which rode to power on concerns about animal well-being in what was dubbed the "pig election" earlier this year, is now turning to poultry.

Madsen said he wants to ban the fast-growing chickens, known as the Ross 308 breed, at both the national and EU level. His announcement came just a day after a documentary aired with hidden-camera footage from a chicken farm. The footage showed chickens illegally getting just three hours of darkness a day to accelerate growth.

The Ross 308 breed, a widely used breed in poultry production, reaches a body weight of around 2 kilograms over just 33 days, but that can lead to injuries and trouble moving.

A broad group of parties appears to back the proposal. But questions over both the "legal and financial aspects" remain, Madsen acknowledged.

Chicken sector advocates warned that in practice, consumers would simply buy more meat from foreign farms, making it hard for Danish chicken farmers to compete. Poultry company Danpo told specialist outlet LandbrugsAvisen that it was prepared to move away from fast-growing breeds if the ban also covered imports.

But that could prove tricky on an EU level, where common rules of free movement of goods apply.

Denmark previously pushed Brussels to ban turbo chickens at the EU level in the past, and an earlier bid to ban them at the national level fizzled. Copenhagen's new effort is likely to find an ally in The Hague. The Dutch government proposed a similar national-level ban in September, which the parliament is now considering.

The European Commission plans to announce new welfare rules for chickens later this year. While it has promised a ban on cages and the practice of killing day-old male chicks, it has not announced any bans on certain breeds.