Effect of Pelleted and Chopped Wheat Straw on the Footpad Dermatitis in Broilers

An experiment was conducted to determine whether it is possible to replace the chopped wheat straw with newly formulated pelleted straw taking into account the prevalence and severity of footpad dermatitis (FPD) in broiler chickens. The study included 300 one-day-old Ross 308 broilers. One group of broilers was reared on chopped wheat straw (the particle length of straw >= 10 cm). The second group was kept on newly formulated pelleted wheat straw. The duration of the trial was 42 days. Moisture content in litter materials and FPD occurrence and severity were assessed weekly. First signs of FPD were observed in 21-day old chickens reared on chopped wheat straw (FPD score = 0.52 +/- 0.10) and a week later in a group of birds kept on pelleted straw (FPD score = 0.34 +/- 0.07). At the end of the experiment in both groups of broilers percentage of severe FPD was high. Severe lesions were significantly (p LT 0.01) more frequent (80%) in broilers reared on chopped wheat straw than on pelleted straw (56%). Although the high moisture content was measured in both litter substrates and the high frequency of severe FPD was estimated in both groups of broilers, pelleted straw showed lower moisture content, occurrence and severity of FPD (2.56 +/- 0.19) comparing to chopped wheat straw (3.20 +/- 0.13) at the end of the experiment. Further research can be directed to the technological improvement of chopped and pelleted straw production or into the imprOvement of handling with this substrate