Bands of respiratory rate and cloacal temperature for different broiler chicken strains

• Main Authors: Sheila Tavares Nascimento, Iran José Oliveira da Silva, Gerson Barreto Mourão, Ariane Cristina de Castro
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Sociedade Brasileira de Zootecnia 2012-05-01
• Series: Revista Brasileira de Zootecnia
• Subjects: poultry; physiological variables; thermal comfort
• Online Access: http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1516-35982012000500033

The objective of this investigation was to estimate ideal bands of respiratory rate and cloacal temperature for broiler chicken strains during the rearing period and to evaluate the influence of time of exposure on bird physiological variables under different thermal stress conditions. The research was conducted in a climatic chamber during the six weeks of the rearing period, with Avian and Cobb strains exposed to two climatic conditions (comfort and stress), in three distinct times of exposure, in three conditions (before going to the chamber; at the end of exposure time; 30 minutes after the end of exposure), in four treatments: comfort with 60 minutes of exposure; stress with 30 minutes of exposure; stress with 60 minutes of exposure; stress with 90 minutes of exposure. Bands of respiratory rate and cloacal temperature were elaborated for both strains, for each one of the weeks of the rearing period. Strains differed, regardless of treatments and conditions adopted in the research on the third, fifth and sixth weeks of life in relation to the cloacal temperature. The Cobb strain is more tolerant to thermal stress in comparison with the Avian. There was difference for both variables between comfort and stress, but time of exposure to stress did not influence the physiological response of birds, except for cloacal temperature on the second week of life.