Rickets: prevalence of its forms and association with other pathological conditions in broiler chickens

Abstract

The aim of this work was to perform a review of the bibliographic data regarding the spreading of rickets, as well as of its associations with certain pathological conditions in broiler chickens that had been exposed to rickets. The literature suggests that the occurrence of subclinical and clinical rickets within broiler flocks are a possible prerequisite for a number of pathological conditions such as femoral head necrosis (FHN), osteomyelitis, fractures, tibial dyschondroplasia (TD), vertebral column deformations with clinical expressions indistinguishable from spondylolisthesis, chronic respiratory disease (CCRD), ascites syndrome and other conditions related to morbidity within flocks. The gross lesions in the proximal tibiotarsus can be used for differentiation of clinical hypocalcaemic and hypophosphataemic rickets in broiler chickens. Macroscopically, hypocalcaemic rickets are hardly distinguished from tibial dyschondroplasia because the latter condition may be a consequence of the former in its etiological aspect.

Keywords::

• ricket forms
• ricket-associated pathological conditions
• broiler chickens