Litter quality in broiler houses directly affects leg health and foot welfare, with wet or soiled litter causing painful hock burns and footpad dermatitis affecting millions of birds.
Broiler litter quality is a welfare-critical management variable that receives insufficient attention in commercial operations. Wet, ammonia-saturated litter causes chemical burns on the feet and hocks of birds that spend much of their time sitting — a consequence of the leg weakness caused by their rapid growth rate. The resulting dermatitis causes chronic pain that affects the birds ability to move to feed and water. Footpad scoring has emerged as a practical welfare monitoring tool because it captures the cumulative effect of litter quality management across the production cycle. Producers with good litter management achieve low footpad scores, demonstrating that this welfare problem is preventable.