Aetiology of food-related oral lesions in chickens

Brown Leghorn chickens fed on a mash diet developed ulcerated oral lesions with extensive epithelial erosion and large colonies of bacteria. Some birds had lesions by six weeks old and by 30 weeks oral lesions were present in all birds fed on a mash diet. These lesions occur infrequently in birds fed a pelleted diet and the relatively extensive lesions shown by birds on a mash diet heal quickly (in many cases within two weeks) when the birds are transferred to a pelleted diet. The cause of the lesion is unknown but there was no evidence for food impaction, mechanical damage to the epithelium, specific dietary constituents or blocked salivary ducts. The lesions may be due to poor oral hygiene which results from the lack of mechanical stimulation of the oral epithelium to which fine particles of mash adhere.