ACTA VETERINARIA ET ZOOTECHNICA SINICA ›› 2017, Vol. 48 ›› Issue (4): 669-677.doi: 10.11843/j.issn.0366-6964.2017.04.010

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Effect of Relative Humidity in Poultry House on Thermoregulation and Blood Parameters of Broilers

SUN Yong-bo, LUAN Su-jun, WANG Ya, SA Ren-na*, ZHANG Hong-fu   

  1. State Key Laboratory of Animal Nutrition, Institute of Animal Science, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100193, China
  • Received:2016-11-09 Online:2017-04-23 Published:2017-04-23

Abstract:

The purpose of the experiment was to investigate the effects of different humidity on thermoregulation and blood parameters of broilers, and to provide data support for the reasonable regulation of the humidity in the poultry house. Two hundred and seventy 1-day-old AA healthy broilers were randomly divided into 3 groups with 6 replicates of 15 broilers per replicate.The treatments were normal control group (60% RH), low humidity group (30% RH) and high humidity group (90% RH). The experiment was conducted in an artificial climate chamber of state key laboratory of animal nutrition and lasted for 42 d. The rectal temperature, respiratory frequency, blood indices and immune organ indices were measured at the 21 and 42 days of age, respectively. The results showed that: 1) Compared with the control group, at the 21 days of age, rectal temperature of low humidity group and high humidity group was significantly increased (P<0.05); the respiratory frequency of the low humidity group and high humidity group had a trend to rise(P<0.1); Rectal temperature of low humidity group significantly decreased at 42 days of age (P<0.05). 2) At 21 days of age, compared with the control group, low humidity and high humidity significantly reduced the number of white blood cells and lymphocyte count (P<0.05); The number of platelets were significantly higher in low humidity group than that in high humidity group(P<0.05). At 42 days of age, the number of white blood cells were significantly lower in low humidity and high humidity groups than that in the control group (P<0.05). 3) At 21 days of age, the serum urea nitrogen content in the low humidity group and the high humidity group was significantly higher than that in the control group (P<0.05), while the total cholesterol content in the high humidity group was significantly lower than that in the control group and low humidity group (P<0.05). At 42 days of age, the serum total protein, uric acid and urea nitrogen contents in the low humidity group and high humidity group were higher than those in the control group, while the content of serum albumin, lysozyme, total cholesterol and triglyceride contents were lower than the control group. 4) The spleen index of broilers in low humidity group was significantly lower than that of high humidity group at 21 days of age (P<0.05). Compared with the control group, at the age of 42 days, the content of IgA in low humidity group and the content of IgM in high humidity group were significantly lower (P<0.05). In conclusion, long-term low humidity or high humidity affected the rectal temperature and respiratory frequency of broilers, changed the number of white blood cells, total cholesterol and blood urea nitrogen content and other blood physiological and biochemical parameters, reduced immune function, and it was not beneficial to healthy growth of broilers.

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