Effect of different litter materials on broiler production and occurrence of pneumonia

Abstract

The study was conducted with the aim to find the effect of litter materials on broiler production and occurrence of pneumonia. Data was collected from 22 broiler farms with a total of 33040 birds .Data was collected on the following parameters types of litter materials used (sawdust, wood-shavings),pneumonia, feed conversion ratio (FCR) and mortality. Data was analyzed by t-test on STATA and Chi square test on Microsoft Excel. Litter material treatment had no significant impact on FCR and mortality rate (p>0.05). So Sawdust and Wood-shavings has no relation on the broiler feed conversion ration and mortality rate. On the other hand, a significant relation was found between litter materials and pneumonia occurrence in birds (p<0.05) on Chi square test. Pneumonia occurrence was found to be higher in the farms that used wood-shavings as litter materials than the other ones. So it was concluded that litter materials have a significant role in broiler farming and that there are potential risks associated with the use of different types of litter materials.