Footpad dermatitis (FPD) is a contact dermatitis of the plantar surface of birds’ feet, considered the most common welfare indicator, which gives information about the birds’ health and well-being.
The FPD is associated with husbandry and highly correlated with litter quality. This alteration has grades of severity and affects either the surface or the subjacent structures.
It has been pretty common in commercial turkey and broiler flocks and has lesions prevalence that goes from:
- 20 to 41% of ulcers (Severe lesions)
- 59 to 78% of discoloration, erosion (Mild lesions)
Some of the indicators of FPD are:
- Redness and dark discoloration of scales
- Inflammation
- Skin hyperkeratoris and erosions
- Ulcers
The evaluation of this condition usually is done by scoring scales that allow the classification of the lesions according to a subjective assessment of the size of the alteration. One common method is the standard scoring system for turkeys at slaughter reported by Hocking et al., 2008. This score has 5 categories based on the lesion size.
Figure 1. Foot pad lesions in turkeys at slaughter with different scores. The lesions for scores 2, 3, and 4 are the minimum size required for each score based on the proportion of the foot pad area that is covered by necrotic cells indicated by a dark scab (Hocking et al., 2008)
Researchers from the University of Minnesota in the United States validated the footpad scoring systems to improve turkey’s welfare. However, they indicated that few studies had investigated agreement among FPD scoring methods used on the same turkey. Thus, it is unknown whether turkey FPD misclassification occurs and whether welfare is evaluated with this approach.
How could the footpad be scored?
According to the study, the
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