Responses of Poultry to Environmental Challenges

Influence of Stocking Density on Welfare Indices of Broilers

“…Therefore, improving the microenvironment adjacent to broilers has to be on the top priority of management policies. This approach is often difficult, however, since the ventilation systems are poorly functioning in mixing the mesoenvironment of the poultry house with broilers' microenvironment (Brake and Yahav, 2012). Thus, it is clear that much work is required in order to fully exploit this approach.…”

“…Different body regions (i.e., thermal windows) play an important role in shifting blood distribution to create a thermal gradient between the body and environment, resulting in more heat loss by radiation and convection ways (Shinder et al, 2007;Brake and Yahav, 2012). In the current study, head and shank Ts of broilers belong to the 2 SD had exhibited higher temperature values than body Ts.…”

“…Thus, error is probably small because of this assumption. Moreover, based on the definition of the thermoneutral zone for broilers (Weathers, 1981;Meltzera, 1983;Brake and Yahav, 2012), we also assumed that current observations were conducted within the comfort zone of broiler chickens. Given these considerations, it appears to be reasonable to attribute the noticed differences in broilers thermophysiological responses to the stocking conditions rather than to the environmental temperature.…”

“…In comparison with other homeothermic experimental animal models, highly productive agricultural fowl, such as chicken and turkeys, differ to some extent in their abilities to maintain homeostasis in presence of severe environmental challenges due to their enhanced genetic development for economically important production trait without parallel increases in the functional efficiency of their thermophysiological systems (Brake and Yahav, 2012). Few researchers have specifically addressed how SD may affect broilers' physiological responses, and thus their welfare (Dawkins et al, 2004;Jones et al, 2005;Buijs et al, 2009;Beloor et al, 2010); however, it is still unclear if SD has an impact on broilers' thermophysiology.…”