Figure 7.

Cumulative incidence of total lameness for broilers that at 1 day of age were placed on clean wood shavings floor litter (L), and either remained on litter for 8 weeks (8L) or were transferred from litter to flat wire flooring (W) for the remainder of the 8-week experiment, beginning at 3 weeks of age (3L5W), 4 weeks of age (4L4W), 5 weeks of age (5L3W), or 6 weeks of age (6L2W). All birds were pushed to grow as rapidly as possible to meet their genetic potential (23 h of light per day, high density feeds provided ad libitum, thermoneutral and well ventilated environmental conditions). The incidence of lameness remained typically low as long as the broilers remained on litter, however within 5–7 days after being transferred to wire flooring the incidence of lameness increased dramatically. Total lameness for the 3L5W, 4L4W, and 5L3W groups converged to between 59 and 64% by week 8.