The prevalence of bigger, fast-growing chicken breeds on UK farms – dubbed “Frankenchickens” by campaigners – has led to more people developing health problems, according to animal welfare charities.
Antibiotic resistant bacteria are causing increasing numbers of deaths in the UK. According to the latest available figures from the UK Health Security Agency, 2,640 people died from serious antibiotic-resistant infections in 2023 – a 10 per cent rise since 2019.
Additional animal welfare problems on farms, such as crowded sheds and poor handling practices, were identified by charities as contributing to illnesses and early deaths suffered by chickens.
Some 18.7 million chickens were found with diseases and abnormal conditions at abattoirs in 2024, up from 18.3 million in 2022, according to official data obtained by The i Paper under freedom of information laws.
The most common problem found was cellulitis, a bacterial skin infection, which was detected in at least 9.3 million chickens over the past three years, The i Paper‘s analysis of the data found.
Diseases detected among the animals included peritonitis, hepatitis, pericarditis and myopathies.
He and other charities said many of these problems can be traced back to the use of Frankenchickens, which have been genetically selected to put on breast meat unnaturally quickly. About 90 per cent of chickens bought in UK supermarkets are Frankenchickens, according to the RSPCA.
Due to their abnormal weight, these birds often struggle to get up and move, according to the RSPCA, The Humane League and Open Cages, another animal welfare charity.
Frankenchickens struggle to stand up because their breasts grow unnaturally quickly (Photo: Open Cages)
“Their entire lives are filled with pain, suffering and stress,” Gifford said. “That lowers their immune systems and increases the likelihood that they show up at the slaughterhouse diseased, dying or dead.”
Connor Jackson, chief executive and co-founder of animal welfare charity Open Cages, said the figures obtained by The i Paper were “shocking”, adding: “The vast majority of the chickens that we farm in the UK have very poor lives.”
Bethan Apted, technical officer at the Humane Slaughter Association, said some birds are caught by one leg instead of two before being transported. “They can dislocate the hip, which can lead to hemorrhage and then death in transport,” she said.
A lack of ventilation in trucks or in the lairage where poultry are kept before slaughter can also pose problems, with birds suffering heat stress, Apted added.
Antibiotic use on farms
Since Frankenchickens suffer from poor health, they are “pumped full of antibiotics”, which is contributing to the growing human health problem of antibiotic resistance, Gifford said.
Chickens are typically farmed in crowded sheds (Photo: Open Cages)
“We should really only be giving antibiotics to human beings, but we’re regularly, prophylactically feeding them to farmed animals,” Gifford said.
Cóilín Nunan, scientific adviser at the Alliance to Save Our Antibiotics, said the prevalence of fast-growing chicken breeds “leads to higher levels of antibiotic use” on farms, which “contributes to antibiotic resistance”. Farm antibiotic use accounts for about 30 per cent of British antibiotic use, according to Compassion in World Farming.
Antibiotic resistant bacteria in chicken carcasses can pass on to consumers when they are handling the raw meat and if they do not cook it well enough, which can lead to an antibiotic resistant infection. “This can ultimately kill you”, Nunan said.
These dangerous bacteria include E. coli, campylobacter, salmonella, MRSA and Clostridium difficile.
Some 1.14 million deaths worldwide are directly caused by antibiotic resistance, and nearly 5 million are associated with it.
Most of the infections (65 per cent) were caused by E. coli, which often leads to urinary tract infections, diarrhoea, vomiting and fever. “Antibiotic resistance in E coli bacteria is a huge human health problem,” Nunan said.
“Intensive farming is bad for animals and it’s bad for human health,” Jackson said.
Parts of diseased birds eaten by Britons
The presence of abnormalities and diseases identified in the Food Standards Agency data does not always mean the animal is rejected for human consumption. Sometimes hock burns on animals’ legs get cut off and other parts of the chicken are sold.
Supporters gathering outside the High Court for a hearing on Frankenchickens (Photo: @sammivegan)
“It is quite well known in the industry that they remove things like hock burns because they know that consumers would find it unappealing.”
Wooden breast myopathy – a condition where muscle cells have died – is tricky to spot and if it is not caught it can end up with consumers eating hard chicken with a poorer taste, Parkes said.
Of the major supermarket chains, so far just M&S and Waitrose have committed to implementing this by the end of 2026. They are among 130 companies that have signed up to the Better Chicken Commitment, a series of pledges to improve chicken welfare which also includes giving the birds more space on farms.
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Read MoreThe Humane League and the RSPCA took Defra to court to try to get Frankenchickens banned on British farms, but the case was dismissed last year.
A spokesperson for the British Poultry Council, which represents the poultry meat industry, said they produce a billion birds a year for food in the UK, and the percentage of birds with diseases and abnormalities is very small and within regulatory thresholds.
They said all breeds face challenges and antibiotic use in the poultry meat sector has fallen 81 per cent since 2012.
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