Influence of Housing Floor on Air Quality, Growth Traits, and Immunity in Broiler Chicken Farms

One of the challenges face the broiler industry is the choice of the floor system depending on its availability, cost, and ease of handling. The influence of different floors (wood shaving, rice husks, wheat straw, slats, and cages) on indoor air gases levels and microbial load, growth traits, carcass weights, some immune and edible organs’ weights, antioxidant and cortisol levels, immunity, and intestinal microbiota in classic Hubbard broilers were investigated. A total of 200 one-day-old female classic Hubbard chicks were purchased and divided into five separate rooms. The 1st room was supplied with wood shaving, the 2nd with rice husks, the 3rd with wheat straw, the 4th with plastic slats, and the 5th with horizontal cages. A total of 3705 samples including 525 air samples, 2100 environmental swabs (floors, walls, feeders, and waterers), 180 sera, 180 duodenal swabs, and 720 organs like liver, spleen, heart, and bursa of Fabricius were collected. The results revealed highly significant declines (P < 0.01) in microclimatic carbon dioxide and ammonia concentrations, feed conversion ratios, cortisol hormone, total antioxidant capacity, lactate dehydrogenase, malondialdehyde, superoxide dismutase, and total bacterial and Enterobacteriaceae counts, as well as, highly significant increases (P < 0.01) were recorded in weight gains, performance indices, live body weights, carcass weights, liver; spleen; heart and bursa of Fabricius weights, and immunoglobulin G and M concentrations in broilers raised in battery cages and on slat-floor. The study concluded that slatted floors and battery cages were able to maintain indoor air quality, reduce microbial contamination, and enhance growth traits and immunity of broiler chickens compared to traditional deep litter systems