Lameness and its relationship with health and production measures in broiler chickens

Abstract

The aim of this study was to explore lameness and the associations between lameness and health/production measures of animal welfare in commercial broiler production, using the Welfare Quality® protocol for broilers. A total of 50 flocks were included in the sample and farm visits were conducted for lameness scoring at a mean age of 28.9 days. The percentage of animals (n=7500) in the six different gait score (GS) categories were GS0: 2.53%, GS1: 44.19%, GS2: 33.84%, GS3: 16.32%, GS4: 2.36% and GS5: 0.53%. Production and other welfare data were collected for each flock after slaughter. Higher gait scores were associated with increased hock burn score (P<0.02), increased footpad dermatitis score (P<0.01), reduced bird cleanliness score (P<0.01) and peat litter (P<0.01). Although not statistically significant, there was a tendency for increased flock gait score being associated with wet litter (P=0.07). In addition, condemnations at postmortem inspection were associated with increasing gait scores (P<0.05), indicating that at least a portion of the lameness cases display pathological changes on the carcasses. In conclusion, 19%of the birds showed moderate-to-severe lameness, which was associated with several production or health and welfare observations including feather cleanliness and condemnations as unfit for human consumption at slaughter. Although stocking density and growth rate are already known key factors for lameness, associations of lameness with hock burns, footpad dermatitis and cleanliness of the birds suggest that a suboptimal physical environment (e.g. litter- and air quality) may be detrimental to leg health. Further studies are needed to explore these associations in more detail.

Associations between welfare and ranging profile in free-range commercial and heritage meat-purpose chickens (Gallus gallus domesticus)

“…Footpad dermatitis is considered a painful condition, which is associated with health and performance problems ( Ask, 2010 ). It reduces the birds' ability of reaching the outdoor area ( Granquist et al., 2019 ). Sasso birds presented higher scores of FPD, as compared to Green-legged Partridges.…”

Research Note: First evidence of infectious bronchitis virus Middle-East GI-23 lineage (Var2-like) in Germany

“…Even, slightly reduced weight gain can have an enormous impact on feed conversion rate and thereby makes it uneconomic (Gocsik et al, 2014;Onsongo et al, 2018). Wet litter can cause severe cases of pododermatitis, which is an important indicator for animal welfare in Germany and which is monitored in the slaughter houses by the veterinary authorities (Granquist et al, 2019). Therefore, it seems to be very important to find sufficient alternatives for vaccination to improve the protection level.…”

Genetic selection of broilers and welfare consequences: a review

“…The mean prevalence of broilers displaying a gait score of 3 or above has previously been reported to be between 15 and 55% (Kestin et al 1992;Sanotra et al 2001;Knowles et al 2008). More recently, studies conducted across multiple flocks, farms and countries have reported the prevalence of birds with a moderate to severe gait impairment (gait score 3 or above) to be between 5.5 and 48.8% (Bassler et al 2013;Tahamtani, Hinrichsen and Riber 2018;Kittelsen et al 2017;Granquist et al 2019).…”