Equilibrium Condition during Locomotion and Gait in Broiler Chickens

Abstract

The experiment was carried out with the objective of evaluating a methodology to estimate the angulation and equilibrium condition, relating them to gait score and the main diseases of the locomotion system in males and females of commercial broiler strains. A completely randomized experimental design in a factorial arrangement (2x2) was applied, consisting of two sexes and two genetic strains, with five replicates of 53 chickens each. The following characteristics related to broiler locomotion were studied: gait score (GS); incidence of Valgus (VAL) and Varus (VAR) deformities and of pododermatitis (POD); body angle relative the ground (ANG); equilibrium condition (EC); body weight (BW) and breast weight (BrW); and incidence of femoral degeneration (FD), tibial dyschondroplasia (TD) and spondylolisthesis (SPO). GS, and VAL and VAR were assessed inside a broiler house. Birds were then photographed to estimate ANG and EC. Birds were sacrificed at 42 days of age and analyzed for FD, TD, and SPO. Breast percentage was not influenced by sex or strain. Males showed better ANG than females, regardless of strain. Overall, the strains studied showed prostrated EC. The correlation between GS and the evaluated traits was low. There was a moderate to high association between EC and ANG both in males and females. GS showed low correlation with locomotion problems, and therefore, it is a poor indicator of skeletal diseases. On the other hand, the moderate to high correlations of ANG and EC with locomotion problems make them better indicators of bone diseases than gait score, which is possibly more related to EC and body posture than to bone pathologies.

The effects of Environmental Enrichment on Some Physiological and Behavioral Parameters of Broiler Chicks

“…The conducted test is as follows: The chickens were induced to walk for a distance of 1 m on a flat surface containing wood shavings, simulating the broiler litter conditions found in the broiler house. The methodology consisted of subjective observations that allowed attributing a score on how the bird walked (Alves et al, 2016b). According to this scoring, gait characteristics were regulated as 0 was normal, and as 5 was the worst.…”

“…This situation may have been caused by the use of rice husks as the litter material in their study. All in all, this methodology will be useful tool to assess how broilers walk (Alves et al, 2016b). Fidan et al (2014) determined glucose as 12.81 mmol/l, cholesterol as 3.02 mmol/l, triglyceride as 1.01 mmol/l and total protein as 31.53 g/l at the end of their study on broilers.…”

How Are Information Technologies Addressing Broiler Welfare? A Systematic Review Based on the Welfare Quality® Assessment

“…Locomotor problems in broilers are often correlated with litter quality [84][85][86][87][88][89][90], since the ammonia excreted by the animals can provoke lesions in their feet. Additionally, they can be consequence of the high growth rate of animals [91][92][93][94] and of the increasing genetic selection for heavier major pectoralis muscle [56,65,95]. Clark et al [96] proposed that leg problems are an animal welfare issue as a result of animals being pushed beyond their physiological limits.…”

Pasta de higuerilla desintoxicada en dietas para pollos de engorda

“…No se encontró en la literatura revisada estudios acerca del empleo de la pasta de higuerilla en dietas para pollos de engorda en variables de bienestar animal; sin embargo, en este estudio se encontró que el grado de habilidad para caminar disminuyó en las aves de los tratamientos PS, PHA y PHAQ y la angulación valgus/varus fue mayor en estas aves, esto puede explicarse porque las aves con mayor peso tienen menor habilidad para caminar en comparación con las aves más ligeras (26) , pues el peso influye en estas características (27) . Los pollos de engorda con mayor peso permanecen postrados más tiempo.…”