Norwegian turkey production is a relatively small industry, but the consumer demand for turkey meat has increased steadily over the last 15 years: In 2015, 1.260.617 turkeys (10.920 tons) were produced – compared to 772.292 turkeys (4.603 tons) in 2000. In the same period, the average number of slaughtered turkeys per production unit increased from 9.194 to 18.270 turkeys, whilst the number of producers decreased from 84 to 69 (1). The industry faces challenges related to increasing production efficiency while simultaneously meeting consumer demands for good animal health and welfare. Indeed, a majority of Europeans are concerned with the importance of protecting the welfare of farmed animals (2), and turkey welfare aspects have been increasingly raised in the Norwegian public debate. Veterinary officers in the NFSA (Norwegian Food Safety Authority) report welfare challenges such as skin and footpad lesions, and air sacculitis in Norwegian turkeys (e.g. 3,4), in spite of the fact that producers largely comply with the existing legislation for turkeys (5). The recent risk assessment on turkey welfare conducted by the Norwegian Scientific Committee for Food Safety (VKM; Vitenskapskomitéen for Mattrygghet) supported these concerns (6). Animalia (Norwegian Meat and Poultry Research Center) and the Norwegian turkey industry recently established a working group with the aim to develop and establish an Animal Welfare Program (AWP) for turkeys as a tool to systematically safeguard, assess and improve animal welfare in the Norwegian turkey population. However, the lack of science-based knowledge based on Norwegian production conditions, as emphasized by VKM (6), has hampered this development. The Animalia-led working group that is currently developing the AWP for turkeys has so far concluded that elements from the welfare program for broilers (e.g. health surveillance visits, industry based audits and documentation requirements) can be transferred to a turkey AWP. This group has initiated a practical on-farm pilot project ‘turn the turkey’ – where turkey advisors visit farms at regular intervals during the production cycle for a visual inspection of feet and skin to gain more knowledge about the development, progress and risk factors for foot and skin lesions in turkeys on farm under Norwegian production conditions. This AWP group emphasizes that implementation of systematic recordings of animal-based welfare indicators at slaughterhouses would further assist in generating an evidence-based documentation of the turkey welfare situation.
