AN UPDATE ON THE EPIDEMIOLOGY OF CONTACT-DERMATITIS IN COMMERCIAL BROILERS

A computerized management and disease information retrieval system for commercial broiler production was established in 1985. The database p resently contains information on over 950 flocks (15 million birds) pe r annum. The system has enabled the effectiveness of strategies which have been implemented to control contact dermatitis to be monitored. B etween 1986 and 1994, the prevalence of breast burn lesions has been p ractically eradicated (0.2 to 0.00%) and the prevalence of hock burn l esions has been dramatically reduced from 21 to 7%. This reduction has been mainly due to the use of better litter management techniques and improvements in house design, particularly changing the type of drink er system. Production factors during 1993 and 1994 which were found to be consistently related to increased prevalence of hock burn lesions were male only flocks, inferior food conversion ratio, failure to meet target income and increased mortality rates.