Nutritional manipulations for preventing contact dermatitis in poultry – A review

Contact dermatitis (CD) represents a prevalent condition within the poultry industry, primarily afflicting the breast areas and extremities such as feet and hocks of poultry. It is caused by contact with hard surfaces or litter. CD detrimentally influences the welfare, growth parameters, and the meat quality of poultry. The disease progresses from skin discoloration to redness and swelling, eventually leading to ulcerative and necrotic lesions. Footpad dermatitis is the most frequently encountered variant, although other forms include breast blisters, breast buttons, breast burns, and hock burns. The majority of studies have focused on curing footpad dermatitis. Therefore, studies related to other forms of CD are limited. Because the birds’ feet have the most contact with the litter. CD causes reduced feed intake and body weight gain as well as a variety of disorders including lameness and weakness. Although numerous factors contribute to CD, nutrition is one of the most important. This article summarizes and discusses recent research on the effects of feed additives on CD incidence in broiler chickens and turkeys. Feed additives, one of the nutrition-related factors, have a variety of benefits in reducing the incidence of CD, but studies on the topic are sparse. Probiotics, prebiotics, phytobiotics, enzymes, and tannins, which were used as feed additives in these studies, appear to be beneficial for reducing the incidence of CD.