Dual-purpose chicken breeds are not a commercially or environmentally viable replacement for specialised laying hens at the scale required by the UK egg industry, according to new research commissioned by the Vegetarian Society. The report, by animal welfare researcher Jenny L Mace, examines dual-purpose breeds as an alternative to the routine culling of male layer chicks. It concludes that dual-purpose birds have lower productivity which means significantly more birds would need to be bred and reared to maintain current levels of egg and meat production. This would increase demand for land, feed and other resources. The research therefore concludes that…