Litter quality in broiler and laying hen housing directly affects welfare through ammonia exposure, respiratory health, and foot pad dermatitis rates, making litter management a critical welfare intervention.
Litter quality management is one of the most direct interventions available for poultry welfare in commercial housing systems. The welfare impact of poor litter quality is significant: ammonia exposure causes chronic respiratory and ocular irritation that reduces bird welfare throughout their lives, while foot pad dermatitis from wet litter creates painful lesions that impair walking and are associated with reduced access to feed and water. Foot pad scoring as a welfare outcome metric has the practical advantage of being an objective, measurable indicator that can be applied at slaughter to provide population-level welfare assessment for flocks. The retail and consumer monitoring of foot pad dermatitis rates has created commercial incentives for litter management improvement that have driven measurable welfare gains in certified supply chains.