LOCOMOTION ANALYSIS OF MALE COMMERCIAL TURKEY - A COMPARATIVE-STUDY OF HEALTHY AND LAME TURKEYS

A comparative locomotion analysis of healthy and lame male commercial turkeys was carried out. Walking turkeys were filmed from both right and left lateral views. Video films were analysed. The coordination and the succession of hind limb movements were studied with time and space components. The gait of healthy turkeys was a walk with perfectly symmetrical and repeatable hind limb movements. All lame turkeys' movements showed abnormalities in space-time coordination. These abnormalities were bilateral but non-symmetrical, intermittent, and non-systematic. Their intensity increased with increase in the degree of clinical handicap. However, in all lame turkeys, the degree of an abnormal tibial movement was observed, ie a shorter amplitude of forward movement with variable intensity.