Traditional and commercial turkeys show similar susceptibility to foot pad dermatitis and behavioural evidence of pain

1. An experiment was conducted to compare the development and clinical significance of foot pad dermatitis (FPD) in 4 lines of turkey poults kept on wet or dry litter for 6 d.

2. Turkeys kept on wet litter were less active and expressed fewer unique sequences of behaviour than poults kept on dry litter, suggesting that high FPD scores are associated with pain during movement.

3. Heavier lines of turkeys had higher mean foot scores that developed earlier, than those in a traditional line, but the effect was relatively small and not statistically significant after 6 d, whereas there were large differences between individuals within line.

4. Body weight gains were greater, and feed intake was lower in the commercial lines kept on dry litter compared with wet litter. There were no differences in water intake between poults kept on wet or dry litter.