The impact of broiler production system practices on consumer perceptions of animal welfare.

This research explores the extent to which different farm management practices influence the per-ceived animal friendliness of broiler production systems, and how this differs between individuals. Using a con-joint design with paired comparisons, respondents eval-uated broiler production systems that were described on the basis of 7 animal welfare-related practices. It was found that practices in the area of outdoor access, stocking density, and day-night rhythm were overall perceived to have a larger impact on perceptions of ani-mal friendliness than other practices, such as transport duration or the type of breed used. However, individu-als differed regarding the extent to which they believed the different farm management practices influenced the animal friendliness of the production system. Differ-ences between individuals regarding their knowledge about and familiarity with livestock farming, degree of anthropomorphism, and their moral beliefs regard-ing animal welfare partly explained the relative impor-tance individuals attached to farm management prac-tices. The obtained insight into which welfare-related farm management practices, in consumers' minds, most strongly contribute to animal welfare, and the existence of differences between consumers, can be helpful in the development of animal welfare-based certification schemes that are appealing to consumers, as well as the positioning of welfare concepts in the market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]