The quality of litter in broiler chicken houses directly affects the welfare of billions of chickens through its impact on foot health, air quality, and disease risk.
Foot pad dermatitis is one of the most prevalent and measurable welfare problems in global poultry production — and one of the most preventable. When litter becomes wet from drinker leakage, poor ventilation, or excessive stocking density, ammonia and bacteria accumulate at the floor surface and cause progressive tissue damage in the feet of chickens that stand on it continuously. Severe FPD is painful: affected birds are less active, eat less, and show physiological stress markers. The good news is that litter quality is manageable through husbandry improvements that are well understood and often economically neutral or beneficial to producers. The EU approach — using slaughter-line FPD scoring to regulate stocking density — creates a direct feedback loop between observable welfare outcomes and management standards.