Evaluation of the environmental parameters of battery-caged poultry house in the humid tropical climate

Abstract

<jats:p>Heat stress is a key factor affecting the productions of the animals. In laying birds, it could cause loss of body weight and high mortality. To this end, a study was carried out in a naturally ventilated, tier-caged layer house to evaluate the environmental parameters and the heat stress index within the building during hot weather period. Throughout the study, the environmental parameters (air temperature, relative humidity and air velocity), inside and outside the experimental building were measured and recorded. The heat stress index using the temperature-humidity index (THI) was also estimated. The results of the study indicated that laying birds in this study were most of their lifetime subjected to hot conditions which could have a significant effect on their performances. It was also found out that the air velocity within the building was very low (0.07 ms-1 to 0.58 ms1) which could not provide a cool environment for the birds. The heat stress index (THI) inside laying bird building was found to be mostly influenced by high relative humidity compared to ambient temperature. Therefore, it would be appropriate if the airflow distribution inside the poultry building, in this study, could be evaluated using computational fluid dynamics to understand the velocity profile within the building. This could assist engineers to redesign the building and make it appropriate for laying birds in the humid tropical climate.</jats:p>

Motorbike Powered Trailer for Transporting Poultry Birds

“…According to Schwartzkopf-Genswein et al (2012), the indoor temperature of the trailer for transporting small animals should not exceed 30°C to prevent heat stress. However, in the humid tropical climate, achieving such thermal conditions inside the vehicle could be difficult since air temperature is usually above 30°C (Jongbo, 2020). Therefore, in this study, an average air temperature of 30.4°C was observed at an average motorbike speed of 30 to 40 km h -1 within the trailer.…”

“…The motorbike-powered trailer was driven on an off-road track, a typical Nigeria road, for thirty-five (35) minutes from 1:30 pm to 2:05 pm during which the environmental condition was monitored and recorded. The period of the study was considered appropriate because the weather in the humid tropical climate starts to get warm, according to Jongbo (2020), from midday (noon) to around 4:00 pm and the warm condition was considered to negatively affect the microclimate of the animals. It is necessary to clearly state that the trailer was tested without poultry birds inside.…”

“…Livestock, according to Thornton, (2010) occupies about 30% of the planet's ice-free terrestrial surface area, serves as a source of animal-based protein (Jongbo, 2020), and their production has contributed immensely to the economic growth of any nation especially in ensuring food security (Nabarro and Wannous, 2014). They are the source of employment for over 1.3 billion people worldwide, contribute about 40% of the global income from agricultural products and also support the livelihoods of over 600 million poor small-scale farmers in developing countries (Nabarro and Wannous, 2014;Thornton, 2010).…”

Desenvolvimento E Avaliação Das Condições Climáticas Dentro De Um Edifício De Aves Sustentável

“…The air temperatures obtained in the building were higher than the recommended air temperatures for mature poultry in CIGR (1984) and Holik (2015) for tropical climate. This indicates that poultry raised in this building could be subjected to high indoor air temperatures during the afternoon periods (Jongbo, 2020).…”

“…It could be observed in Figure 6 that the air relative humidity inside the building is higher than that of the outdoor air relative humidity. The higher indoor air relative humidity obtained inside the building could be as a result of the lower air temperature inside the building (Jongbo, 2020).…”