Air quality in commercial broiler houses is a critical but often overlooked welfare issue. Ammonia, dust, and pathogens in poorly managed litter environments cause significant respiratory harm to billions of birds.
Respiratory welfare in broiler houses is an invisible but pervasive problem. Birds in high-ammonia environments experience chronic irritation of the respiratory mucosa, eye inflammation, and impaired breathing — conditions they cannot escape and cannot communicate. FPD causes painful lesions that affect every step the bird takes. Both conditions are substantially preventable through management investment. Footpad dermatitis scoring at slaughter provides a welfare audit trail that links flock management to welfare outcomes — a model for outcome-based welfare assessment.