Foot pad dermatitis develops at an early age in commercial turkeys

Abstract

1. A field experiment was conducted to identify the macroscopic and histological changes associated with the development of foot pad dermatitis (FPD) in growing turkeys. Two affected and two unaffected turkeys were sampled weekly from 1 to 8 and at 10 and 21 weeks of age. 2. At one week old, birds with external signs of FPD (surface skin discolouration) showed abnormal cellular changes of the foot pad integument. As the flock aged the reactions intensified, with one sample exhibiting a fully developed macroscopic lesion at 3 weeks. 3. Major pathological changes had occurred by 6 weeks and all turkeys with external signs of lesions had fully developed microscopic inflammatory cellular lesions. From 6 weeks of age onwards lesions were increasingly numerous and became more overtly necrotic. 4. Externally normal foot pads showed microscopic evidence of lesions after the turkeys reached 4 weeks. 5. We conclude that FPD lesions become severe over a short period of time and at a very early age.

Foot pad dermatitis in growing turkeys is associated with cytokine and cellular changes indicative of an inflammatory immune response

“…FPD is associated with redness, swelling and tissue necrosis, and may also be accompanied by pain (Martland, 1984(Martland, , 1985Mayne, 2005;Mayne et al, 2007b). Histopathologically, FPD is associated with massive increases in heterophils and macrophages and the loss of surface keratin (Mayne et al, 2006).…”

“…FPD develops rapidly in commercial flocks, where fully developed lesions occur by 3 weeks of age and from 6 weeks lesions simply increase in size (Mayne et al, 2006(Mayne et al, , 2007a. FPD is associated with redness, swelling and tissue necrosis, and may also be accompanied by pain (Martland, 1984(Martland, , 1985Mayne, 2005;Mayne et al, 2007b).…”

Prevalence and severity of foot pad alterations in German turkey poults during the early rearing phase

“…Within 24 h after birds were initially exposed to wet, not necessary wet and dirty, litter, the first signs of FPD appeared, possibly due to a rapid inflammatory reaction (Mayne et al, 2007b). Several authors state that FPD, especially in severe cases, may cause discomfort and pain for the birds (Ekstrand and Algers, 1997;Buda et al, 2002;Mayne et al, 2006;Berk, 2007;Mirza, 2011) and there-ABSTRACT In the previously performed field study from 2007 to 2009, it became evident that foot pad alterations were already commonly found in turkeys at the age of 6 wk. At this early age, 45% of the clinically examined birds were diagnosed with epithelial necrosis.…”

“…Mayne et al (2006) discovered that under specified test conditions, histopathologic alterations of the foot pads occur at an early age in turkey flocks and can turn out to fully developed lesions over a fairly short period of 3 wk. External signs of FPD could already be seen in the second week of life during the investigation performed, also under test conditions, by Berk (2007Berk ( , 2009) and Schumacher et al (2012).…”

Litter characteristics and pododermatitis incidence in broilers fed a sorghum-based diet

“…(Martrenchar, 2001) According to Garcia et al (2011) several factors may affect litter quality in broilers houses, such as feed composition or type, litter material, time birds remain on the litter, bird density per area, and environmental temperature. Mayne et al (2006) and Youssef et al (2008) mention several studies that indicate that high litter humidity may induce pododermatitis, independently of other factors. The studies of Abd El-Wahab (2012) showed that broilers reared on litter with 65% humidity presented higher pododermatitis scores than those reared on litter with 35 and 50% humidity.…”