A Study on the Influence of Effective Temperature on Performance of Broiler Chickens

Abstract

The performance of broilers is determined not only by the genetic makeup but also by the environmental factors such as ,temperature, relative humidity, ventilation, lighting program, and housing system. Hence, this study was conducted to investigate the influence of effective temperature on performances of broiler chickens reared in a closed house system while comparing their performances with standard performance levels, under existing temperature conditions (26 - 18C). Cobb 500™ broilers aging from 28 - 42 days were used to evaluate the performances by measuring feed and water intake, weight gain and mortality rate in daily basis under existing temperature, relative humidity and wind conditions. Study results revealed that the climatic conditions have co-related with effective temperature by scoring 99.1% model accuracy while effective temperature has shown a significant effect (p<0.05) on 'performances of broilers. Moreover, the daily weight gain, water intake and the mortality rate of the broilers were significantly affected (p<0.05) by the effective temperature with 91.2% , 75.3% and 42.1% of model accuracies, respectively. However, there was no significant effect (p>0.05) of effective temperature on daily feed intake of broilers. It can be concluded that the variation in effective temperature inside the poultry house has a great contribution to broiler performances and it acts as a leading reason for the poor performance status of the broilers rearing in the farm.