Influence of Using Perforated Plastic Flooring Beneath the Waterline on Growth Performance, Litter Quality, and Footpad Health of Broiler Chickens: A Field Study

SIMPLE SUMMARY: The standard housing method in Europe’s poultry farming is to keep broilers on a littered concrete floor. Therefore, wood shavings are used to catch moisture to prevent wet litter. In particular, the broilers frequently visit the wet area beneath the waterline, where the wet litter causes the main problem in footpad health and animal welfare. The current study tested the impact of slatted flooring beneath the waterline by dividing the barn into three areas (drinkers, feeders, comfort) in terms of growth performance, litter quality, and footpad health of the broilers. The quality of the litter was assessed on the basis of different parameters, for example, dry matter. No effect on growth performance between a littered floor and partially slatted flooring was noted. However, the litter parameters show a small positive impact on the litter quality, especially in the areas of drinkers and comfort, while using partially slatted flooring. Nevertheless, the slatted flooring had an impact on the footpad health of the broilers, with a lower FPD score at the end of the fattening period. ABSTRACT: The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of slatted flooring beneath waterlines in broiler barns on litter quality and, subsequently, footpad health. The hypothesis tested was that installing slatted flooring underneath waterlines helps to improve litter quality and thus reduces footpad diseases, enhancing animal welfare as a result. Five experimental runs with two groups were conducted. Each run was defined as one fattening period of 32 days and consisted of 15,000 broiler Ross 308 of both sexes. Every barn was divided into three areas (drinkers, feeders, and comfort area) for weekly sampling. No influence on growth performance was noted. The slatted flooring influenced the litter quality by preventing the litter in the experimental group (EG = 690 ± 167 g/kg DM) from becoming moisture until day 14 of the fattening period compared to the control group (CON = 636 ± 198 g/kg DM). The footpad health was also influenced by using slatted flooring, with lower camera-based footpad scores in the EG (8.80) compared to CON (22.0) at the slaughterhouse (p = 0.0258). Installing slatted flooring beneath the waterline reduced the moisture of the litter compared to the control barn in the first two weeks of age and showed a positive effect on the footpad health of the broilers at the end of fattening, which indicates an improvement in animal welfare.