The Veterinary Record 158:679-682 (2006)
© 2006 British Veterinary Association
Measurements of footpad dermatitis in broiler chickens at processing plants
A. Pagazaurtundua, MSc, MRCVS1 and
P. D. Warriss, BSc, PhD, CBiol, MIBiol, FIFST1
1 School of Veterinary Science, University of Bristol, Langford, Bristol
BS40 5DU
A four-point photographic scale was developed to score the severity of
lesions of footpad dermatitis (FPD) in broiler chickens. There was
a linear relationship between the square root of the relative area of the
lesions and their scores, and good agreement between different assessors using
the scale. The scale was used to assess samples of 100 birds from each of 190
flocks slaughtered at two UK processing plants in 2002 and 2003; 12
of the flocks (6·3 per cent) had no lesions, but the others had lesions
of different prevalences and severity. The maximum proportion of affected
birds in a flock was 92 per cent. In the 178 affected flocks, 84·0 per
cent of the birds had no lesions and 16·0 per cent had some evidence of
FPD. The overall unweighted prevalence of birds with FPD
in all 190 flocks sampled was 18·1 per cent; 10·2 per cent had
only small lesions, on average equivalent in area to 2·1 per cent of
the total area of the foot, 6·2 per cent had lesions on average
equivalent to 6·6 per cent of the area of the foot, and 1·7 per
cent had lesions on average equivalent to 21·5 per cent of the area of
the foot. There were differences between the two plants in the overall
prevalence and severity of FPD, but this may have been due to the
fact that the plants were sampled at different times of the year.
Copyright © 2006 British Veterinary Association
