Relationship between severity of footpad dermatitis and carcass performance in broiler chickens

The relationship between the severity of footpad dermatitis (FPD) and growth performance parameters (live weight, condemnation rate, leg meat yield and breast meat yield) was investigated in a total of 63 million broiler chickens that were processed over a period of 1,053 days between 2008 and 2012 at a full-scale processing plant in Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan. FPD scores and carcass data were summarized daily and analyzed to determine their correlations. It was found that FPD severity was positively correlated with the condemnation rate and negatively correlated with the live weight and leg meat yield. These results indicate that controlling FPD may play an important role in reducing condemnations while improving live weight and leg meat yields.