Study of animal welfare through analysis and comparison of the presence of foot pad dermatitis in broilers raised in controlled environments in Brazil and Spain

Resumo

The pododermatitis interacts directly with the animal welfare, it is a disease that alters the behavior, causing serious discomfort to the animals and is also a port for incoming pathogens, being the legs constantly on the chickens litter. We collected data of male and female chicken's feet with 14, 28 and 42 days of age, in four negative pressures poultry (A, B, C and D) with controlled temperature, either of the coolers side and of the exhausters side, totaling 144 birds in hot season in Brazil and 144 birds in cold season in Spain, applying an evaluation of injury scores of 1-4. Males and females showed no significant differences in any country, although the media in Brazil were higher. In Spain the aviary A showed higher scores of injuries and in Brazil there was no significant difference in any aviary. Regarding ages, in animals with 28 and 42 days, the lesions were significantly bigger than 14 days in both countries. The scores on hand showed significant differences only for the media in Brazil, which were higher than that of Spain. Being the area of the coolers more wet, this indicates that it may increase the injury index, with the aggravation of the external temperature and relative humidity of the air higher in Brazil. We conclude that the external ambience influences the internal ambience and added to the management and reuse of the litter may interfere in increasing injury score as the birds gain more weight.

Keywords: cushion plant lesion, contact dermatitis, negative pressure, ambience.