In Finland, the foundation of broiler production lies in the parent hens of meat broilers. They are broilers which are brought to Finland as chicks and raised here to lay eggs which hatch to so called production generation broilers. The health and welfare of the parent hens are considerable in the facade of production: At least fifth of the parent hens sent to the slaughterhouses in 2024 were condemned based on illness.
An investigation into the reports of meat inspection of meat broilers and their mortality was published on the 19th of November 2025 in Animalia-media. The investigation revealed that 3,75 million meat broilers and 0,16 million broiler parent hens were condemned at Finnish broiler slaughterhouses in 2024 for being unfit for human consumption. A total of 82 million broilers were slaughtered in the same year.
In the article we revealed that 339 758 broiler parent hens were accepted in meat inspection according to the meat inspection statistics of the Finnish Food Authority. There are 345 408 slaughtered broiler parent hens in the meat production statistics of the Natural Resources Institute Finland which makes the difference of 5 650 individuals. We asked about this from the Finnish Food Authority and they replied that the imprecision in statistics might result from record keeping practices or human errors.
Parent hens in hiding
There would be no meat broilers without parent hens. Very little is known about the parent hens, however. There are around thirty farms in Finland where parent hen pullets are bred and production generation broiler eggs are produced. According to international researched information, some of the issues of broiler parent hens are an enormous hunger and weight gain caused by the breeding, which are controlled by limiting the feeding. In other words, the parent hens are not given as much food as they would need. Thus, the hens stay hungry.
According to studies, breeding and limited feeding cause chronic stress to the parent hens.
Salmonella is more common in the parent generation broilers. The low contagion of Salmonella at Finnish meat broiler farms is the result of removing Salmonella-contaminated parent hens from the production, by killing when necessary.
Sick parent hens, like meat broilers, can be killed at the farms by decapitation. Birds also die spontaneously. The death rate is high: eight percent of the birds die at the farms. Dead birds are either burned at the farms in special ovens or they are collected by Honkajoki. Honkajoki is an animal waste management facility owned by big meat companies to which carcasses are delivered by a carcass collection vehicle.
According to information available to Animalia, broiler parent hen farms are not really supervised from the point of view of animal welfare. Sample-based audits might be done at parent hen farms, but the number of audits vary by year and are only done at some of the farms. Audits related to Salmonella control are done as required by the Animal Diseases Act.
There are no undercover photographs available of Finnish broiler parent hen farms. There is such material available of Swedish broiler incubator- and parent hen farms, however. In these images and videos the chicks are shown to be treated like objects on conveyor belts and parent hens are seen in a space without lights on. There a signs of pecking in the heads and bodies and cannibalism is also visible. The parent hens of meat broilers are brought to Finland from Sweden.
Chickens living in limited space are pecking each other’s feathers. Source: Djurrättsalliansen.
Coincidently, a photo published on social media at the end of February revealed a broiler parent hen farm as a background to a real estate service agent’s working day. The photo shows how tightly the hens live. Their rear ends are featherless and some are missing feathers from the wings. The tails are bleeding and red. Roosters also appear in the photo.
Because the parent hens live long within their bred bodies and lay a large amount of eggs, they become sick and have inflammation. Finnish broiler production is advertised as antibiotic-free but this is not true. The practices of broiler parent hen production were examined during the writing of Broilerin tarina (A non-fiction book about Finnish broiler production) and it was revealed that antibiotics are given to the hens. One reason for doing this is to prevent skin inflammation, hypodermic inflammation and inflammation in general. The hens are given antibiotics usually because of arthritis, tenosynovitis and inflammation caused by the Escherichia coli bacteria. In 2024, 14,5 percent of the parents hen flocks were given antibiotics. Between the years 2014-2024 flocks that had been given antibiotic medication covered 3,7-26,1 percent of the hens.
One year old hens are taken to the slaughterhouse
The hens are slaughtered when they are 60-64 weeks old. This means that the ones who live to be year old are taken to the slaughterhouse. Care must be taken when handling the hens because their bones are fragile and their body weight is considerable, despite the continuous hunger. They are exceptionally vulnerable to fractures and damage.
Each animal that is going to be slaughtered is inspected before killing (antemortem inspection). The purpose of the inspection is to determine if the animal is healthy and fit for human consumption. At cattle slaughterhouses the inspection is done for some animals by looking at them while they walk from the transport vehicle to the cowshed. The cattle are placed in passages to wait for the slaughtering while the vet inspects them. The vet usually sees the cattle from one side only, their eyes, how dirty they are, the condition of their legs etc. Only some are inspected while in motion. Condemnation of live animals is based on their well-being, lack of identifiable features and diseases. Broilers do not have identifiable features.
Broilers arrive to slaughterhouses in stacks of boxes in which they are also stunned if carbon dioxide stunning is used. When using water bath stunning, the birds are hung by their their legs on a conveyor which takes them to a pool in which they stunned by an electrical current as it passes through their bodies. The vet does not, at any point, inspect each animal like they do to cattle and pigs.
According to so called best practices, the birds which have got stuck to the transport box by their limbs or heads, are to be removed from the boxes and “executed without delay if excessively stressed or injured”. Therefore the inspection considers mostly the state of the transport boxes and the panting and general sounds of the birds.
503 251 broiler parent hens were delivered to slaughterhouses in 2024. Some of the broilers died during the transport, couple were condemned in inspection while alive for being unfit for human consumption, and the rest proceeded to the slaughtering after which they were accepted or condemned, either partly or completely,
Broiler parent hens accepted or condemned in meat inspection in slaughterhouses 2024
- Accepted 67,5%
- Condemned 32,3%
- Accepted: 339 758 pcs (67,5 %)
- Condemned whole-carcasses: 162 533 pcs (32,30 %)
- Partially condemned carcasses: 28 166 pcs (5,60 %)
- Deceased spontaneously: 342 pcs (0,07 %)
- Condemned while alive: 9 pcs
Source: The Finnish Food Authority
Partial condemnation means removing part of the carcass for being unfit for foodstuff. Even though the number of hens being condemned alive is small, it still reveals much about the inspection process. These birds were executed in slaughterhouses because of their poor health.
The statistics from the Finnish Food Authority do not report on the categories to which the 609 individuals belonged to.
What do the condemnation reasons tell about the health of the broiler parent hens?
162 533 broiler parent hens were condemned in meat inspection. Health problems, the most common reasons for condemnation, were changes in the coelom which were found in significant number of the birds. The next most common reason was dermatitis which indicates inflammation, cellulite, phlegmon or abscesses, and thirdly, muscle loss. Less common were hemorrhage and fresh fractures, edema and other reasons.
• Changes in the coelom: 77 695 individuals
• Dermatitis, cellulite, phlegmon, abscesses: 17 693 individuals
• Muscle loss (Cachexia): 4 253 individuals
• Hemorrhage and fresh fractures: 2 213 individuals
• Other reasons: 1 181 individuals
• Edema: 379 individuals
103 414 individuals were condemned for these causes. Therefore 59 119 individuals were condemned for some other reasons.
Compared to meat broilers, the condemnation reasons of the parent hens emphasize on the changes in the coelom and muscle loss whereas edema is rare. The hens have more changes in the coelom than males because they live longer. They might have gastroenteritis, pneumonitis, liver failures, inflammation of the oviduct and gout. Muscle loss indicates the presence of chronic diseases and problems in feeding.
The hens get fractures more often because of their large size and frailness. The stunning method is also relevant: meat broilers flutter less when using carbon dioxide stunning. Bruises and fractures occur less often when the boxes are not moved and tilted. The birds require more handling when using water bath stunning.
Broiler production is increasing. In addition to providing more information to consumers about the breeding and living conditions of meat broilers, information about the parent hens should also be available. The meat inspection statistics of broiler parent hens are currently not publicly available and information about the monitoring of broiler parent hen farms is not included in the reports of the animal welfare control.
Translation: Artturi Lehikoinen
Photo: Kuva: Stefano Belacchi / Essere Animali / We Animals
