Curled toes and perosis-like leg abnormalities in cage reared broilers.

A high incidence of perosis-curled toe type of leg disorder has consistently developed in both cage- and floor pen-reared male broiler chicks of two different genetic strains within 5 to 7 days when fed a nutritionally complete corn-soybean meal diet. Postmortem analysis of affected birds indicate classic perosis as seen in dietary manganese (Mn) deficiency. Ration modifications, such as inclusion of 50 ppm additional Mn or .5 mg/kg vitamin B-2 did not prevent or reduce the development of this leg problem. Birds reared in floor-pens had a reduced incidence (12 to 13%) of perosis-curled toe problem compared with incidence of leg disorders of battery-reared birds (20 to 60%). In most instances, a positive relationship between rate of weight gain and severity of leg abnormalities was apparent. Reduction in photoperiod from 24 hr/day to 12 hr/day substantially reduced incidence of leg disorders; however, growth rate was also reduced. The practical basal diet employed in all experiments promotes satisfactory rate of growth and feed efficiency and may be an excellent assay diet for experimentation into perosis-like broiler leg problems.