「Establishing the new national “technical guidelines of Animal welfare and complianceregarding animal welfare of broiler in Japan」、Keirannikujyouhou (Information of Chickenand Egg),Japanese Poultry Magazine (August 25, 2023)
Author: Masahiro Takeuchi President of ISHII CO., LTD
1. Introduction
While I was writing this article, I heard the shocking news. The Japanese Ministry ofAgriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) temporarily suspended importing live birds andpoultry meats from Santa Catarina in Brazil due to occurrence of High Pathogen Avian
Influenza (HPAI). As Santa Catarina is the country's second biggest chicken meat exporter inBrazil, the impact is huge although the export ban is only limited to Santa Catarina. Globallychicken meat exporting countries cannot prevent the occurrence of HPAI completely. If Japancannot import birds and poultry meats, there may be a risk of insufficient supply of poultry
meats in Japan.
I write this article three years after the previous writing. I have been writing the article about
Animal Welfare twice a year from January 1998 to January 2020 in this magazine. The reason
I did not write the article is because COVID-19 (see Data 1) and HPAI (see Data 2) happened
simultaneously in Japan and I was not able to travel to conduct enough survey and collectinformation in domestic and foreign farms due to travel restriction. The last three years werevery difficult time for the politics, economics and poultry industry surrounded byuncertainties.
In January 2020 the first patient of COVID-19 was confirmed and the number of patients
increased a lot in 2022. The COVID-19 pandemic continued for three years but COVID-19
has been recategorized as a Category V infectious, placing it at the same level as that ofseasonal influenza since May 2023 in Japan. Simultaneously HPAI occurred. Particularly theworst situation started from October 2022 and continued until April 2023. Eighty four cases
were reported and the number of birds killed reached 17.71 million for over half a year. Inaddition, Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022. Over the past three years, production cost
increased significantly due to rising feed prices caused by negative impact of social
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environment. Broiler industry continues to face challenging conditions.
2. New National Animal Welfare(AW) Guidelines in JapanThe new national AW guidelines were established. In the third Opinion Exchange Meeting,“Notification proposal” from the director-general of the Livestock Bureau and national AWguidelines (guideline proposal) were prepared and published on the MAFF website.
On July 26 new final guidelines for AW of each livestock were released as the notificationfrom the director-general of the Livestock Bureau based on the discussion of the 3rd Opinion
Exchange Meeting. These guidelines are published on the website below along with thereference information such as Opinion Exchange Meetings, related notifications, Q & A,Checklists. 2023 will be the memorable year for AW in Japan.
https://www.maff.go.jp/j/chikusan/sinko/animal_welfare_iken.html
I serve as a committee member for two years from 2022 by recommended of the Japan
Livestock Technology Association (See Data 3. List of committee members for Opinion
Exchange Meeting about AW). According to the meeting minutes of the 3rd opinion
exchange meeting, from May 23 2022 to June 21 2022, 1730 public comments weresubmitted about the guidelines drafts.
These guidelines drafts show the future AW movements through the explanation from
MAFF to the public comments. There are three points in the guidelines (see Data. 4).
① In order to expand export (including SDGs actions) the standards of AW in Japan meetthe international standards, OIE codes.
② For rearing and managing each livestock, “recommended practices” and “futurerecommended practices” should be clearly defined.
③ After the guidelines are released, MAFF monitors the implementation status and sets atarget year when the recommended practices will be achieved.
In the guidelines (see data 5 ⑦), AW measurement indexes are listed. AW will beevaluated using the measurement indexes based on the results especially broiler conditions.
The indexes in the guideline are 11 items as below.
① Mortality, culling and morbidity② Gait③ Contact dermatitis④ Feather condition⑤ Incidence of diseases, metabolic disorders and parasitic infestations⑥ Behavior⑦ Water and feed consumption⑧ Performance2 / 8⑨ Injury rate
⑩ Eye conditions⑪ Vocalization
In order to comply with these guidelines, the obligation to make direct efforts for rearing
and managing is obviously necessary. In addition, the compliance needs to be improved bymore detailed observation, records, knowledge, technical acquisition, equipment, creatingplans etc.
3. AW promotion project by Japan Livestock Technology Association
Japan Livestock Technology Association held the 1st promotion project committee forspreading AW broiler rearing and managing on June 30 2023. This project continues for twoyears of 2023 and 2024 with eight committee members. As one of the committee members, I
would like to cooperate with the domestic and international surveys. According to themeeting minutes, the purpose of the project is to spread and promote AW by collecting theAW conscious information and providing the information of AW and actual AW practices tothe farmers and related workers. The project contains two works; ie collecting informationand supplying information. For collecting information, they conduct domestic survey about
the implementation status of AW and advanced practices. In addition, they conduct aninternational field survey so that they can comprehend the AW practices in foreigncountries. For supplying information, they summarize the collected information and have a
study meeting in order to widely spread the rearing and managing of broiler practices whichkeep AW in mind.
4. Ensuring five freedoms
Ensuring five freedoms are described in two pages of seven pages of the notification fromthe director-general of the Livestock Bureau of MAFF.
Five freedoms① Freedom from hunger, thirst and malnutrition② Freedom from fear and distress③ Freedom from physical and thermal discomfort④ Freedom from pain, injury and disease⑤ Freedom to express normal patterns of behavior
About the freedom to express normal patterns of behavior, notification from the directorgeneral of the Livestock Bureau writes “Livestock can comfortably rest and adjust posturesnaturally. As a result, birds can feel comfortable and safe. It is important to give birds chance
3 / 8where they can behave according to their natural biology and habits.”
5. Outline of environmental enrichment
I consider the environment enrichment as “supplementary tools” which can provide thefreedom to express natural behavioral pattern to birds from AW perspective. The broiler
supplementary tools include the Window where sun shine comes in for natural light,
Veranda, Perch where birds can jump on/off, Space where birds can explore the field andforage, move, spread the feather and legs (density and growth rate are reduced), Straw balewhere birds can peck, Pecking block, String with knot, and Dark place where birds can restand sleep.
6. Natural behaviors according to the livestock natural biology and habits
I introduce the impressive lecture about ensuring freedom in order to express the normal
behavioral pattern as one example. In June 2023, I attended the Hubbard premium forum inFrance hosted by Hubbard. This is the 3rd Hubbard forum I participated after Portugal andSpain. Hubbard belongs to the Aviagen group and has a dominant market share in brownbirds all over the world. In the forum Ms. Laura Warin delivered lecture whose title is “Whatenrichment can bring to premium chickens?” and explained her study results about thenatural behaviors according to the broiler’s natural biology and habits. Warin says
“Environmental enrichment can satisfy the broiler’s behavioral needs (Data 6).
The environmental enrichment already being used in France includes natural light,
stopping at perch, exploring and foraging, moving, spreading the wings and legs (density andgrowth rate are reduced).
The litter equality is improved in the environment where the birds can dust bathing, birds
become more active, perches can reduce the time when the birds contact the litter leading to
reduction of contact dermatitis and increase of bird’s activity (jumping on/off the perch) and
improvement of the broiler’s gait capability. The environment where the birds can explore
and forage will give the birds more opportunities to forage. More cost and more labor are
needed for the farmers to provide these environments to birds, but on the other hand the labor
condition is improved for the workers and they are happy to see the natural broiler’s
behavioral patterns. Workers also enjoy the environmental enrichment such as Veranda.
As a conclusion, there are various kinds of environment enrichments which need to besuited to bird breed. If broilers are raised in the better environment, the producers can also
expect the performance improvement.
7. Movement toward AW
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The loss of global COVID-19 is huge more than 1000 trillion JPY. I consider AW can bethe basic prevention to the HPAI derived pandemic.
Establishing national AW guidelines is the very good start as Japan has been said always
lagging behind, but gradually we start reaching the stage where European AW common
practice can be implemented in Japan. However, AW needs costs. The producers provide thegood rearing environment for broilers and try to improve the performance. It seems more
understanding and cooperation are needed among consumers, retailers, processors andauthorities to bear the cost in the future AW implementation.
Data 1. The number of COVID patients in Japan from January 2020 to May 2023 (Source:Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare)

Data 2. HPAI occurrence situation (Source: Veterinarian of Ishii)
Dead wild birds

location outbreak dead birds

PoultryAll

Layer

Broiler

BreederothersLocation outbreak killing

Location outbreak killing

Location outbreak killing

Location outbreak killing

Location outbreak killing(10,000)(10,000)(10,000)(10,000)(10,000)

Data 3. List of committee members for opinion exchange meeting about AW (Source: The
3rd opinion exchange meeting organized by MAFF on June 28 2023)

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The members include Mr. Masahiro Takeuchi of ISHII CO.,LTD, McDonald’s Company(Japan),Ltd., KFC Holdings Japan,
Ltd. etc.

Data 4. Establishing new guidelines for AW (Source: The 3rd opinion exchange meeting on
June 28 2023)
Notification・Guidelines in the past
✔ In order to spread and establish the rearing and managing based on AW, the notificationfrom the Livestock Production and Feed Division was released. For rearing and managing
method of each livestock breed, Japan Livestock Technology Association prepared the private
farmer’s voluntary guidelines.
✔ MAFF supported the preparation of guidelines by Japan Livestock Technology Association,butdifferentiation

betweenShould(presentimplementationrecommended)

andDesirable(Future implementation recommended) was not clear.
RevisedNew guidelines✔ In order to expand export of livestock products, MAFF publishes the national guidelines
based on OIE codes (proposals for layer) so that Japan’s AW standard can reach theinternational standards,✔ In line with OIE codes, differentiation between “should” and “desirable” needs to be clear.
6 / 8✔ After the new national guidelines are released, MAFF monitors the implementation of newguidelines. Considering the implementation status, MAFF sets the target year for Should(present implementation recommended). The subsidies are applied to some projects in orderto spread and accelerate AW.
Data 5. Summary of technical national guidelines for broiler rearing and managing (Source:The 3rd opinion exchange meeting on June 28 2023)
1. Management method: Implementation recommended

No toe trimming, no de comb



Avoid sudden movement in order to eliminate unnecessary stress to birds. Avoid
rough handling. Handle softly to avoid damage to the birds.

Catching birds are implemented carefully in the dark area not to avoid strong impact
to the birds.

2. Nutrient: Implementation recommendedManage the feeding and watering so that the birds can keep the normal body
condition. Give sufficient water and feed suitable for the bird’s age which contains
appropriate nutrients and satisfy physiological needs in quality and quantity.

3. Bird house: Implementation recommended

If possible choose the land insusceptible to natural disaster. Houses should be built
and maintained so that the risk of exposure to the disease occurrence andcontaminated materials can be minimized and the injury and pain to the birds can beavoided.

Pay attention that the birds cannot be injured by the damaged part in a house. House
structure should be easy for daily rearing and managing of birds and properly
removing manures.

4. Rearing method, structure and rearing space: Implementation recommended

Give sufficient space so that all birds in the same flock can simultaneously rest
without being disturbed and can keep the natural postures.

Rearing method, structure and rearing space: Future implementation recommended

It is desirable that chicks do not directly contact the floor and untangled dry litters
are provided in order to encourage the dust bathing and foraging.

5. House environment: Implementation recommended

Design the house so that the correct temperature can be maintained as much as
possible and fresh air can be supplied.

Appropriate lighting should be installed so that birds can behave normally andworkers can easily do daily work.
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6. Confirming AW status: Implementation recommended

Risk management manual etc. are prepared in order to minimize the natural disaster
effect.

7. Measurement indexes of broiler AWMeasurement indexes of particular behaviors in case AW problems occur are listed.

Data 6.
Broiler’s natural behavioral needs

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