A systematic review of farm-level sustainability indicators in broiler production

SUMMARYAn increasing interest on sustainable agricultural practices, from both the scientific community and society, has been observed in recent years. However, there is a lack of integrative models that account for interactions among sustainability indicators for broilers within the three dimensions of sustainability i.e. economy, environment and society. This need requires understanding the characteristics of existing models focusing on indicators to enable further development, but an overview of indicators in broiler production is lacking. To address this gap, this study provides a comprehensive analysis of farm-level sustainability indicators for the broiler sector. This systematic review followed the guidelines of Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses to select studies that were published between 2000 and 2024 and using farm-level indicators in at least three dimensions of sustainability. The search yielded six eligible studies. After a comprehensive analysis of the selected studies, the indicators were categorised into the three dimensions of sustainability and a combination of indicators that were considered similar were applied. Our findings revealed an average of 20.67 indicators per study, with most in the social dimension, followed by environmental and economic. Most studies combine primary and secondary data and have used a participatory approach. The results demonstrated that some indicators, such as mortality, were categorised into different dimensions of sustainability across studies. Mortality was the most common indicator found in studies (83% of the studies). The review revealed the interrelated nature of the sustainability dimensions and indicators. The review emphasised the necessity for sustainability indicator frameworks to be applicable to specific regions, thereby reflecting the local priorities and challenges. The findings provide a valuable resource for a range of stakeholders, including researchers, policymakers and farmers, who may use them in the development, improvement and implementation of sustainability assessment indicator frameworks for broilers or in benchmarking performance on farms.