Prevalence of keel bone deformities in Swiss laying hens

1. The goal of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of keel bone deformities of laying hens in Switzerland. The keel bones of 100 end-of-lay hens from each of 39 flocks (3900 in total) were palpated. 2. On average, 25·4% of the hens had moderately or severely deformed keel bones and the overall prevalence including slight deformities was 55%. 3. Variation between flocks was considerable. Thus, the prevalence of moderately or severely...