Litter quality visual assessment in broiler sheds

Maintaining high-quality litter (meaning dry and friable) is a primary objective in the management of poultry houses, as poor-quality litter could have significant consequences on the health and welfare of birds. The assessment of litter quality can be done through various instrumental methods requiring time for analyses and/or specific costly equipment. In contrast, visual assessment can be conducted without any instruments, is instantaneous, and easily feasible. However, visual scoring may be considered subjective, this is why EURCAW-Poultry-SFA studied the validity, inter assessor reliability and intra-assessor repeatability of three visual scores. In this factsheet, the most reliable score is described with a method of assessment.