Heat Shock Protein and Thermal Stress in Chicken

Chicken has been selected for higher production performance over the years and are highly sensitive to changes in their environment. The average global temperature has increased over the century and is further expected to rise. In open house rearing system chicken is vulnerable to this increasing environmental temperature and may experience thermal stress. Heat shock proteins (HSP) are highly conserved family of proteins playing important role in normal cellular physiology and cytoprotection against different stressors including heat stress. In chicken levels of different members of HSP family are increased in almost all the tissues in response to heat stress. This increased HSP level protects cellular proteins from heat stress induced damage. Efforts to overcome the heat stress conditions in chicken have lead to development of thermal manipulation protocols whereby epigenetic modifications are introduced. Through epigenetic adaptation the birds acquire protection against the adverse effects of heat stress. This chapter discusses the findings on cellular HSP responses to heat stress and the thermal manipulation strategy to overcome heat stress in chicken.