The legs, however, fail to keep pace and often cannot properly support the overgrown body. As a result, each year millions, probably tens of millions, of broilers suffer from painful, sometimes crippling leg disorders. In the worst cases birds can hardly walk at all and can only move by crawling on their shanks. The birds heart and lungs are also unable to keep pace with the rapid body growth. This results in several million chickens dying each year of heart disease before reaching their slaughter age of 6 weeks.
Many broilers suffer from painful breast blisters, ulcerated feet and hock burns.
Prolonged contact with such litter can lead to breast blisters, ulcerated feet and hock burns. Health implications for consumers Keeping broilers in poor conditions not only inflicts suffering on the birds but also poses serious threats to human health. Salmonella and campylobacter are the main sources of food poisoning in humans. In October 1996 Which magazine examined a number of whole chickens and chicken portions bought from a range of supermarkets. They found 32 out of 90 to be unfit for human consumption .