Effect of thermal environment on performance of broiler chickens using fuzzy modeling

Abstract

RESUMOThis study aimed to develop a decision-support system based on fuzzy set theory, which can estimate welfare depending on the production responses of broiler chickens raised in climatic chambers. In the first phase, the influence of four different air temperature conditions on the performance of broilers was identified. Thus, the effect of air temperature on productivity was evaluated. In the second phase, a model was developed using the fuzzy set theory, in which feed intake responses, weight gain, and feed conversion were established according to age and the air temperature at which the birds were maintained, obtaining an efficient evaluation of the thermal environment. The results indicate that the proposed methodology is a promising technique for the determination of the level of thermal comfort endured by broilers, capable of assisting in making decisions on control of the thermal environment, avoiding productivity losses.Key words: mathematical models; environmental comfort; climatic chambers. Efeito do ambiente térmico sobre o desempenho de frangos de cortes usando modelagem fuzzyEste estudo teve como objetivo desenvolver um sistema de apoio à decisão com base na teoria dos conjuntos fuzzy, que pode estimar o bem-estar de acordo com as respostas de produção de frangos de corte criados em câmaras climatizadas. Na primeira fase, identificou-se a influência de quatro diferentes condições de temperatura do ar sobre o desempenho dos frangos. Assim, foi avaliado o efeito da temperatura do ar na produtividade. Na segunda fase, foi desenvolvido um modelo usando a teoria dos conjuntos fuzzy, onde as respostas consumo de ração, ganho de peso e conversão alimentar foram estabelecidos de acordo com a idade e a temperatura do ar em que as aves foram mantidas, para obtenção de uma avaliação eficaz do ambiente térmico. Os resultados indicaram que a metodologia proposta é uma técnica promissora para a determinação do nível de conforto térmico sofrido por frangos de corte, capazes de auxiliar na tomada de decisões sobre o controle do ambiente térmico, evitando perdas de produtividade.Palavras-chave: modelos matemáticos; conforto ambiental; câmaras climáticas. 338Flávio Alves Damasceno et al.

Psychrometry in the thermal comfort diagnosis of production animals: A combination of the systematic review and methodological proposal

“…Studies use sophisticated techniques for predicting and determining the thermal comfort of production animals, such as neural networks and fuzzy modeling (Abreu et al, 2015;Damasceno et al, 2017;Sousa, et al, 2018). As a methodology of practical use, this work de ned the use of decision trees by the following criteria: a) they are easy to interpret and can be represented graphically; b) they do not demand a robust and laborious pre-processing of the input data; c) they are sensitive to multiple label problems (when an instance is associated with more than one class simultaneously); d) they allow operating with missing values, which is recurrent in environment data; e) they allow manipulation of categorical and numeric data.…”

Thermal response of broilers in different poultry house models at the Amazon environmental conditions

“…According to Moura (2001), when the environmental temperature is below or above the average body temperature, the efficiency of heat exchange decreases, characterizing a thermal stress situation (Damasceno et al, 2017). From this, the main mechanism to heat loss becomes the process of water evaporation by the respiratory system, where higher vapor pressure of the environment tends to cause greater difficulty in releasing heat through evaporative ways.…”

Digital infrared thermal imaging of body and hoof skin surface temperature profile in Murrah buffaloes (Bubalus bubalis): A preliminary report

“…Cattle and buffalo are the two different species having differences in their morphology and anatomy, they perform distinctly dissimilar behaviors in the bodily function of heat release (Koga et al, 2004). Buffaloes are well known for their hardiness, and they cope up well in hostile situations (Damasceno et al, 2010). Mohsina et al, (2014) studied incidence of lameness in different species and found 5.47% in buffaloes compared to 7% in cattle.…”