Litter quality in floor-housed poultry systems directly affects the welfare of hundreds of millions of birds through foot pad dermatitis, hock burns, and respiratory disease caused by ammonia from degraded litter.
Litter quality is a bellwether welfare indicator for floor-housed poultry because wet, ammonia-rich litter simultaneously causes foot pain, respiratory irritation, and increased disease risk. A bird with severe foot pad dermatitis walks on painful, ulcerated feet for much of its brief life. Ammonia causes chronic eye and respiratory irritation that reduces feeding and activity. These problems are preventable through management decisions about stocking density, ventilation, and drinker systems, making high lesion prevalence in a flock a direct indicator that preventable welfare harm is being allowed to persist.