At Hendrix Genetics, caring for animals means breeding for long-term health, resilience, and well-being. Through responsible breeding and proactive health management, we take an ethical, science-based approach that helps animals thrive in their environment, today and in the future.
Healthy animals are essential to animal welfare, food safety, and sustainable food systems. This pillar reflects how we turn that belief into action across species and regions, guided by three strategic priorities.
Topic I – Setting Standards for Biosecurity and Animal Welfare
For us, biosecurity is not a checklist. It is a core value. It protects animal health, safeguards our genetic progress, and reinforces the trust our customers place in us.
We aim to go beyond compliance by combining strong group‑wide standards with local action and shared responsibility. As disease risks evolve globally, biosecurity must remain dynamic. Everyone at Hendrix Genetics plays a role in prevention.
How we act
- Biosecurity is our first line of defense against disease, protecting animal welfare and food safety.
- A Group‑wide Corporate Biosecurity Policy applies to all Business Units, supported by species‑ and region‑specific plans, training, and regular audits.
- Strong biosecurity helps reduce infection pressure and limits antimicrobial use, supporting the One Health approach.
Prevention also underpins animal welfare. Our Corporate Animal Welfare Policy (2025) sets clear minimum standards and ambitions beyond compliance, covering housing, health monitoring, handling, and balanced breeding goals. All Business Units are certified under the EFABAR Code.
Topic II – Responsible Use of Antibiotics
At Hendrix Genetics, antibiotics are used only when necessary and always with animal welfare as the priority.
Our focus is on prevention and accountability, reducing the need for treatment while ensuring animals receive proper care when required.
Our approach includes
- Curative use only, under veterinary supervision.
- Prevention through robust biosecurity, vaccination programs, good welfare practices, and disease root‑cause analysis.
- A Group Antibiotic Policy that sets clear prescription rules and strictly limits antibiotics critical for human medicine.
This approach supports animal health and contributes to global efforts to combat antimicrobial resistance.
Topic III –Genetic Selection for Group Housing
Housing systems are evolving, and genetics must evolve with them. Through Genetic Selection for Group Housing, we support animals that can thrive in modern, higher‑welfare environments.
Group and cage‑free systems promote natural behavior and improved welfare but also create new challenges around social interaction and robustness. Our role is to breed animals that perform well in these conditions.
Across species, this means
- Selecting for traits such as calm behavior, robustness, mobility, and social adaptability.
- Supporting cage‑free systems in laying hens.
- Enabling loose housing in swine through improved social behavior.
- Keeping welfare central in aquaculture breeding, where animals are naturally raised in groups.
By aligning genetics, management, and environment, we help producers raise welfare standards without compromising performance.