Nutritional Factors Affecting Poultry Skeletal Growth and Health

Dear Colleagues,

High demands on the skeletal system due to the production characteristics of modern poultry lines (e.g., body weight of broilers and egg production in laying hens), along with inadequacies in nutrition or husbandry, often cause skeletal disorders. In laying hens, skeletal disorders can be observed such as leg weakness, vertebral fractures, posterior paralysis, sudden death, etc. The recent changes in housing systems have improved productivity and poultry welfare. However, these changes have also introduced new challenges to the skeletal health of hens, such as keel bone fractures. In broilers, lameness from biomechanical dysfunction results in culled birds, increased mortality (caused by starvation and dehydration), poor growth, and carcass condemnation and downgrading.

This Special Issue aims to gather original research articles, including reviews, investigating nutritional factors affecting skeletal growth and health in poultry. Research areas may include (but are not limited to) feeding strategies to optimize skeletal development in broilers and pullets, skeletal integrity in long-life laying hens, and feeding programs in breeders affecting the skeletal development of their offspring.

Dr. Reza Akbari Moghaddam Kakhki
Guest Editor

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