Journal
JOURNAL OF THERMAL BIOLOGY
Volume 36, Issue 6, Pages 334-339Publisher
PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.jtherbio.2011.06.005
Keywords
Young turkeys; Sensible heat loss; Body weight; Feed intake
Funding
- Egg and Poultry Board of Israel [356-0485]
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The goals were to elucidate the effects of ventilation rate (VR) coupled with exposure to constant 20 degrees C or to diurnal temperature cycling on young turkeys' performance and sensible heat loss (SHL). In three experiments male British United Turkeys (BUT), from 3 to 6 weeks of age, were exposed to constant 20 degrees C, or to 35/25 degrees C or 30/20 degrees C diurnal temperature cycling, all at 50% RH and with VR (expressed as air velocity (AV)) ranging from 0.8 to 3.0 m s(-1). The 2nd and 3rd of these experiments included a positive control at constant 30 degrees C and VR of 1.5 m s(-1). Weight gain, feed intake, and feed efficiency were measured or calculated, as appropriate; SHL was calculated from measured surface temperature, and plasma concentrations of triiodothyronine (T-3) was determined in the 1st experiment. Changes of VR at constant 20 degrees C did not affect performance, but total SHL increased significantly with increasing VR. Under the 35/25 degrees C regime a significantly higher BW was recorded, with a similar pattern of feed efficiency, when VR during the hot part of the cycle was 1.5 or 2.0 m s(-1) than when it was 0.8 m In the 3rd experiment, BW in the 35/20 degrees C treatment was significantly lower than that of the controls. In all experiments, turkeys maintained body temperature (T-b) within the normothermic range, and SHL varied with VR. It can be concluded that although diurnal temperature cycling reflects the natural situation, exposing young turkeys to constant 30 degrees C combined with optimal ventilation might yield the best performance results. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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