Post-mortem examination of fast-growing broilers with different degrees of identifiable gait defects

Machado Tahamtani, FernandaSwedish University of Agricultural Sciences,Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet,Institutionen för husdjurens utfodring och vård (HUV),Department of Animal Nutrition and Management,Aarhus University (author)

Background: The walking ability of many broilers is characterised by slight or definite defects categorised as gait scores (GS) 1 and 2. The present study aimed to examine potential relationships between GSs and indicators of body morphology, leg pathology, tibia strength and wooden breast in Ross 308 broilers assessed as GS <= 2.Methods: At 38 days of age, GS and live body weight of 179 birds was recorded. Each bird was examined post-mortem for signs of wooden breast, contact dermatitis and a range of leg pathologies. Weights of different body parts and tibia strength were quantified.Results: Within sex, GS increased with increasing live bodyweight (p = 0.020). There was a tendency for an effect of GS on prevalence of footpad dermatitis (p = 0.086) and dislocated femoral joint cartilage (p = 0.059) where both pathologies increased in frequency with increasing GS. Greater load was required to fracture tibia from GS2 than GS0 birds (p = 0.040).Conclusions: Within this relatively small data set, no strong relationships between GS = 2 and indicators of body morphology, leg pathology, tibia strength and wooden breast in Ross 308 broilers were found, except for the live terminal body weight. Further studies, involving larger data sets are required for full clarification.

Sveriges lantbruksuniversitetInstitutionen för husdjurens utfodring och vård (HUV) (creator_code:org_t)
Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet

About the subject

AGRICULTURAL SCIENCES: AGRICULTURAL SCI ...; and Animal and Dairy ...; and Animal and Dairy ...

AGRICULTURAL SCIENCES: AGRICULTURAL SCI ...; and Veterinary Scien ...; and Clinical Science

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