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. 2025 Aug 8;12:1611967. doi: 10.3389/fvets.2025.1611967

Table 5.

The percentage (95% CI) of broiler breeder pullets in footpad score categories1.

Footpad score Treatment 16 weeks 22 weeks
0 ED + ADLIB 95.3 (86.3, 98.5) 93.2 (83.6, 97.3)
SAD + ADLIB 95.1 (85.6, 98.5) 92.9 (81.6, 97.5)
ED + WR 91.6 (80.0, 96.8) 88.0 (75.1, 94.7)
SAD + WR 91.3 (79.1, 96.7) 87.6 (72.2, 95.0)
1 ED + ADLIB 5.5 (1.8, 15.8) 6.9 (2.5, 17.3)
SAD + ADLIB 4.8 (1.6, 14.0) 6.0 (2.1, 16.3)
ED + WR 8.8 (3.3, 21.5) 10.8 (4.5, 23.9)
SAD + WR 7.7 (2.9, 19.2) 9.5 (3.6, 22.6)

1Footpad score of 0 denotes no blemish or discoloration of the footpad. Footpad score of 1 indicates small to moderate lesion (<50% of footpad) with black coloring or keratosis of footpad.

Pullets were reared on one of four feed and water provision treatments in a 2 × 2 factorial design. Feeding treatments consisted of skip-a-day (SAD) and every-day (ED) feeding programs, while water provision treatments consisted of water restriction for 3 h during the 8 h photoperiod (WR) or ad libitum (ADLIB) access to water during the 8 h photoperiod.

No statistical differences were identified (p > 0.05).