UK has more than 1,000 livestock mega-farms, investigation reveals

Chickens crammed in a factory farm; there are four poultry farms in the UK registered for more than 1 million birds. Photograph: Courtesy of VFC

There are more than 1,000 US-style mega-farms in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, including some holding as many as a million animals, according to a new investigation.

In the US, mega-farms are defined as those that hold more than 125,000 birds reared for meat, or 82,000 egg-laying hens, 2,500 pigs, 700 dairy cows or 1,000 beef cattle. These are labelled by US officials as a concentrated animal feeding operation (CAFO).