Clinical assessment of growth performance, bone morphometry, bone quality, and serum indicators in broilers affected by valgus-varus deformity

Integrative analysis of long non-coding RNA and mRNA in broilers with valgus-varus deformity

“…The Hubbard broiler grows fast and has high meat yield, but the incidence of leg disease is also high. In previous studies, leg disorders were associated with compromised growth, lipid metabolism, bone quality and structure [7]. At present, the molecular mechanism of VVD is poorly understood.…”

“…And previous studies have found that abnormal changes of bone histomorphology in Hubbard VVD broilers. The Hubbard broiler has a high rate of growth and meat production, and the incidence of leg disease is relatively high [7]. In this study, the transcriptome profiles of spleen tissue from 3 normal Hubbard commercial broilers and 3 VVD Hubbard commercial broilers were compared.…”

“…Cruickshank (1986) showed that the incidence of VVD in broilers was 0.4% at 1 week of age and increased to 5.4% at 5 weeks of age. In our previous study of VVD in Hubbard broilers, the incidence was 1.75% [ 5 – 7 ]. Reduction of the incidence and severity of VVD is an urgent matter.…”

“…Leterrier and Nys have explored the clinical and anatomical differences of broilers with VVD [ 8 ]. We also studied the phenotypes and pathological changes in the early stage of development [ 7 ]. The occurrence of VVD may be influenced by many factors, such as the lighting schedule, overfeeding, lack of exercise and genetics [ 9 ].…”

Anthropogenic suffering of farmed animals: the other side of zoonoses

“…Balance and mobility are further handicapped by the common practice of amputating the turkeys' distal toe joints to reduce injuries caused by the birds' sturdy claws (Fournier et al 2015). Similarly, in broiler chickens (European Commission 2016, Dinev et al 2019, Hartcher & Lum 2020, unnaturally rapid growth and excessive muscle mass can cause pathologies including tibial dyschondroplasia and vertebral abnormalities such as spondylolisthesis, which are associated with neurological disorders (paresis, paralysis) and angular deformities of the feet (valgus, varus) (Makrai et al 2011, Aitchison et al 2014, Jung et al 2018, Huang et al 2019, Guo et al 2019. Genetic abnormalities (Dierick et al 2019) also cause pathologies at sites other than the arthro-skeletal system, notably hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (in both chickens and turkeys, due to too-rapid growth, high metabolic rate and excessive stress), which can lead to sudden death (Chen et al 2017;Olkowski et al 2020).…”