Published on Oct. 17, 2017
ISA’s Commitment to Layer Welfare
Maintaining high welfare and biosecurity standards is one of the most important aspects of our business. The layer welfare program was created in 2014 to ensure that each of our locations follows a standardized set of procedures that is best for the birds.
We have dedicated an experienced team to uphold our layer welfare program. A team of internal auditors regularly travel to all our facilities to assess that each facility is in compliance with our standard operating procedures in animal handling and care. The internal assessment team comprises of Geneticists and Quality Managers. Each auditor focuses on different aspects in the auditing process using their own area of expertise.
Next to that we are working in close cooperation with researchers that are trying to identify the gender of embryos on a very early stage of embryo development, in order to avoid the culling of male chicks. “The area of sexing embryos before hatching (inovosexing) is the most promising for further research,” said Frans van Sambeek. “Encouraging research has already been carried out globally, including spectroscopic analysis of sex chromosomes using light scatter patterns and tests on genderspecific proteins.”
With continued research and adherence to high welfare standards, we continue to emphasize that the wellbeing, dignity, and care of our animals is of the utmost importance.
