Effect of Lighting Period and Diets Density of Broiles on the Appearance of Lesions on the Foot Pads

Abstract

SUMMARYThe experiment involved 320 chickens of the line Cobb 500, both sexes, a cycle lasted 42 days. The floor area was covered with 10 cm of sawdust.The factors in this experiment were: 1) lighting program (constant light -CL, declining light -DL and then growing light -GL; and 2) density of diets at a constant energy-protein ratio (mixture of lower energy and protein -LEP and mixtures with a higher content of energy and protein -HEP).The chickens were divided into four groups in the form of two-factorial trial randomized block design (2x2) -four repetitions with 20 birds per repetition.Chickens in control group "LE'' were fed with standard starter and grower mixtures. Chickens in ,,HEP'' were fed with standard mixtures with addition of oil and soybean meal.Assessment of damage and the presence of lesions in all experiments were carried out on 21st, 28th, 35th and 42nd day of the cycle. Condition of foot pads of all chickens was assessed by three-step method for assessing dermatitis (Tomas et al. 2004). The applied lighting programs and diets density had no effect on the appearance of lesions on the foot pads.