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Iowa Egg Council not surprised by study

Egg-laying hens kept in conventional cages do not show a higher degree of stress than those housed in cage-free systems. That’s one of the conclusions coming out of a major research study on hen-housing systems.

Randy Olson, executive director of the Iowa Egg Council says he’s not surprised by that finding.  He says producers understand that healthy birds are going to be more productive.

“It stands to reason that systems that have evolved and developed over the course of time to our current production standards, over 90% of our eggs in the U.S. are produced in this conventional cage method would have evolved because of the ability to produce from a healthy bird. And, that would indicate the stress levels would be moderate.”

The study was conducted by the Coalition for Sustainable Egg Supply.