How litter quality in broiler houses directly affects the health and welfare of chickens raised for meat, and what producers can do to improve conditions.
Litter quality is a welfare multiplier: when it deteriorates, multiple health problems compound simultaneously. Chickens spend their entire lives on litter, so chronic contact with wet, ammonia-laden bedding causes persistent pain and discomfort. Footpad lesions scored at slaughter reveal the cumulative welfare cost of poor litter across the flock. Improving litter management through better ventilation, drinker design, and stocking density is one of the highest-impact interventions available to producers, offering welfare and production benefits simultaneously.