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Effects of Different Swimming Pool Conditions and Floor Types on Growth Performance and Footpad Dermatitis in Indoor-Reared White Roman Geese.

ABSTRACT: Footpad dermatitis (FPD) is a major foot disease in modern poultry production, and it affects both poultry health and animal welfare. It refers to inflammation and necrotizing lesions on the plantar surface of the footpads and toes. We investigated the effects of providing a swimming pool and different floor types on growth performance and FPD score in indoor-reared White Roman geese. Forty-eight male and 48 female White Roman geese were randomly allocated to pens with or without a swimming pool and with either mud or perforated plastic floor and reared from 15 to 84 days of age. Growth performance measurements included feed intake (FI), weight gain (WG), and feed conversion ratio (FCR). FI, WG, and FCR were significantly decreased at various growth periods in geese provided with a pool. Lower WG and bodyweight for the perforated plastic floor group were found at 15-28 and 28 days of age, respectively. The geese reared on the perforated plastic floors without a pool had higher FPD scores at 70 and 84 days of age than those with other rearing conditions. A higher incidence of FPD score 1 was observed in geese raised without a pool. In conclusion, providing a pool can improve footpad health in indoor-reared White Roman geese but may not benefit growth performance.

SUBMITTER: Liao SC

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8228599 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Project description:Footpad dermatitis (FPD), damage and inflammation of the plantar surface of the foot, is of concern for poultry because FPD affects the birds' welfare and production value. Footpad dermatitis is painful and causes costly chicken paw downgrades, carcass condemnations, and reduced live weights. However, a universal preventative has not been found. The hypothesis was that diets containing orange corn, when compared with diets containing yellow or white corn, would reduce the severity of footpad dermatitis in broiler chickens on wet litter. When compared with yellow and white corn, orange corn contains higher quantities of carotenoids, antioxidant pigments, believed to play a role in skin and feather health. This experiment was a randomized block, 3 × 2 factorial design: orange, yellow, and white corn diets with birds raised on wet or dry litter (control group). Female Ross 708 broilers (n = 960) were used to create 4 replicates of each diet x litter treatment combination. Footpads were scored at day 19, 27, 35, and 42, following the Global Animal Partnership standard's 0-2 scale of visual increasing severity: 0 indicates minimal damage and 1 and 2 indicate mild to severe lesions and ulceration, dark papillae, and/or bumble foot. At 42 d of age, birds on the wet litter had greater severity of FPD, scores 1 and 2, compared with the control group (88 vs. 13% respectively; P < 0.0001). At 42 d of age, prevalence of more severe footpad scores, 1 or 2, was lowest on the orange corn diet (33%), followed by white corn (56%) and yellow corn (63%). Birds fed the orange corn diet had higher BW throughout the study (P = 0.004) and had fat pads and livers with higher yellow pigment deposition (P < 0.005). Litter moisture content altered microbiome composition but corn type did not. In conclusion, the main determinant of FPD in this study was exposure to wet litter. When compared with yellow and white corn, orange corn was associated with improved bird growth and reduced severity of footpad dermatitis, especially at later time points.

Project description:Trihalomethanes (THM) are a class of disinfection by-products in chlorinated waters linked to deleterious health effects in humans although biological mechanisms are unclear. We aimed to study short-term changes in blood gene expression of adult recreational swimmers associated with physical activity and THM exposure. Adult volunteers (18-50 years, non-smokers, non-asthmatics) swam 40 minutes in an indoor chlorinated pool in Barcelona. Blood samples and THM measurements in exhaled breath were collected before and 5 min/1h after swimming, respectively. Physical activity intensity was calculated as metabolic equivalents (METs). Gene expression in whole blood RNA was evaluated using Illumina HumanHT-12v3 Expression-BeadChip. Linear mixed models, Gene Set Enrichment Analyses-GSEA and mediation analyses were used. The study population comprised 37 before-after pairs, with mean age 31 years (SD: 6.0), 60% female, and average changes before-after swimming of 1.75 METs (SD: 1.36) and 0.23 µg/m3 of exhaled bromoform (SD: 0.23). Among THM, bromoform yielded the strongest effect on gene expression changes. Eighty eight probes were associated with bromoform, 326 probes with MET and 77 probes overlapped. In mutually adjusted models, 15 probes remained significant for MET after False Discovery Rate (FDR). Although not FDR significant, in 23 nominally significant probes (p-value <0.05), fulfilling criteria for exploring mediation, 29.5 to 53.4% of MET effect was mediated by exhaled bromoform. Individual genes in this subset and the GSEA of the mutually adjusted gene lists of bromoform and MET were associated with pathways related to inflammatory/immune response and to several cancers. In this first study evaluating short-term gene expression changes associated with swimming in a chlorinated pool, changes in gene expression were observed in association with physical activity with part of this effect mediated through bromoform exposure. Identified genes were correlated with inflammatory, immune response and cancer pathways. These results need replication in larger studies.

Dataset Information

Effects of Different Swimming Pool Conditions and Floor Types on Growth Performance and Footpad Dermatitis in Indoor-Reared White Roman Geese.

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