Partial surface wetting to relieve acute thermal stress of laying hens

• Autor(a) principal: Yanagi Junior, Tadayuki
• Data de Publicação: 2002
• Tipo de documento: Tese
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: LOCUS Repositório Institucional da UFV
• Texto Completo: http://www.locus.ufv.br/handle/123456789/11515
• topic: Poultry; Laying hens; Thermal stress; Physiological responses; Partial surface wetting; Ciências Agrárias

A control and measurement system was developed for studying physiological responses of poultry to thermal challenges and means of thermal stress relief. The system features automatic control of air temperature (t a,SP ±0.2 oC) and relative humidity (RH SP ± 2 %); manual setting of air velocity (V SP ± 0.1 m· s -1 ); and continuous recording of thermographs (i.e., core body temperature (t b ) of the animal. surface temperature, t surf ) and The controlled thermal conditions in the animal-occupied zone (AOZ) are achieved through operation of a small wind tunnel (V = 0 to 1.5 m· s -1 ) inside a t a - and RH-controlled environmental room (5 m L × 3.5 m W × 3.0 m H). Target t a and RH values are achieved by controlling auxiliary heaters and humidifiers in two stages via a programmable measurement and control module and peripherals. Thermographs (0.06°C discernability) are acquired with an infrared (IR) imager whose operation is remotely controlled by a PC. Core body temperature (t b , ±0.1°C) is recorded with a surgery-free telemetric sensing unit that is also interfaced with a PC. In addition, a video monitoring system is used to observe and archive animal behaviors. The instrumentation developed was used in an experiment to establish empirical equations to describe the need of partial surface wetting for cooling laying hens (Hy-Line W-98, 34 ±1 wk old) subjected to a range of thermal stress conditions. The thermal exposures consisted of a factorial combination of 3 dry bulb temperatures (t db ) (35, 38 and 41 °C) × 2 dew point temperatures (t dp ) (21.1 and 26.7 ° C) × 3 air velocities (V) (0.2, 0.7 and 1.2 m· s - ). The environmental conditions were expressed as 18 combinations of air vapor pressure deficit (VPD air ) × V. The water necessary to limit hen surface temperature from rising was expressed in terms of sprinkle interval (SI 10 , min) for a constant spray dosage (10 ml· spray -1 ) or evaporation rate (ER, ml· min -1 ) of the sprayed water. ER was directly proportional to VPD air · V . The relationships may serve as the basis for optimizing an intermittent partial surface cooling system for thermal stress relief of caged layers. Also from the study, a thermal discomfort index (TDI) was derived based on physiological responses, surface temperature (t surf ) and core body temperature (t b ) of the control (non-cooled) hens. Based on t b rise after 50 min of thermal exposure (Δt b,50 ), TDI related to VPD air and V as: TDI = -15.17 + 18.62 (t db ) n – 0.92· (VPD air · was V ) n . Using TDI, four zones of thermal discomfort (safe, alert, danger, and fatal) were defined for various combinations of thermal conditions. Furthermore, theoretical transient heat and mass transfer model was proposed to predict Δt b,50 as a function of environmental conditions, physiological responses of the hens and surface wetness level (β). The model provides a convenient, interactive tool for determining Δt b,50 on wetted and non-wetted hens for t db ranging from 35 to 38 °C.