The influence of the housing system on selected production features of chickens of Ross 308 parent stock

The aim of the research was to analyse the effect of the housing system on selected reproductive traits of parental stock of Ross 308 meat chickens. The study was conducted on two flocks, one of which was kept in a chicken house on a concrete floor entirely covered with litter, and the second in a chicken house in which one-third of the floor was a plastic slated floor and the other two-thirds was a concrete floor covered with litter. During the 38-week laying period, an average of 179.7 eggs were obtained from laying hens kept in the chicken house with a litter floor, including 168.2 hatching eggs, and 187,4 and 175.6 eggs, respectively, from hens kept in the chicken house with a slatted/litter floor (differences not statistically confirmed). The housing system non-significantly influenced feed intake and the number of eggs laid depending on where they were laid (inside or outside the nest). In the litter system, eggs outside the nest accounted for 3.1% and in litter/slatted floor system 9.8% of the total number of eggs laid; the differences were statistically non-significant.

Design of Intelligent Monitoring System of Chicken House Environment Based on Single-chip Microcomputer

In view of the problem that some chicken farms are susceptible to various bacteria and viruses due to poor breeding environment, this paper designs a chicken house environmental intelligent monitoring system based on single-chip microcomputer application to improve the chicken house environment. The system adopts STC89C52 single-chip microcomputer as the main control chip. The sensor collects information on the light intensity, temperature and humidity, and carbon dioxide concentration, and controls the exhaust fan and the illumination lamp, and the environmental parameters can be displayed on the display in real time.

DISTRIBUIÇÃO ESPACIAL DO INDICE DE TEMPERATURA DO GLOBO E UMIDADE EM GALPÃO DE FRANGOS NA PRIMEIRA SEMANA DE VIDA AQUECIDO POR FORNALHA INDUSTRIAL

O desenvolvimento do pintinho em condições ambientais de termoneutralidade é relevante para o desenvolvimento futuro do animal. Nos primeiros dias de vida, os pintinhos ainda não possuem sistema termorregulatório totalmente desenvolvido para se adaptarem a condições ambientais adversas, sendo assim, os animais submetidos a desafios térmicos podem não conseguir se recuperarem até o fim do ciclo de produção. Este trabalho objetivou avaliar a variabilidade e a magnitude espacial do Índice da Temperatura do Globo Negro e Umidade (ITGU) em um galpão de frangos durante a primeira semana de vida, por meio da geoestatística e detectar as regiões no interior do galpão em que as aves estavam em situação de desconforto térmico. O experimento foi conduzido em um aviário comercial com pintinhos da linhagem Cobb e sistema de aquecimento constituído de uma fornalha industrial de aquecimento indireto do ar. Observou-se por meio dos semivariogramas que houve variabilidade espacial do ITGU sendo ajustada pelo modelo esférico e pelo método da Máxima Verossimilhança Restrita (MVR). Foram confeccionados mapas utilizando os dados interpolados por krigagem e pôde-se observar que a partir do quarto dia de vida, os animais ficaram todo o tempo submetidos a condições térmicas diferentes das recomendadas pela literatura. Além disso, um estudo a respeito de índices zootécnicos: massa corporal (MC) e ganho de peso (GP) das aves no mesmo período constatou que a partir do quarto dia de vida, as aves apresentaram desempenho inferiores aos recomendados pela literatura, o que pode ser um indicativo que as condições ambientais no interior do galpão estavam influenciando a produtividade das aves. PALAVRAS-CHAVE: Ambiência; avicultura; conforto térmico; pintinhos. SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION OF BLACK GLOBE HUMIDITY INDEX IN A BROILER HOUSE DURING THE FIRST WEEK OF LIFE HEATED BY INDUSTRIAL FURNACE ABSTRACT: The development of chicks under thermoneutral environmental conditions is relevant for the future development of the animal. In the first days of life, the chicks do not have their thermoregulatory system fully developed to adapt to adverse environmental conditions. This way, animals subjected to thermal challenges may not be able to recover until the end of the production cycle. The objective of this paper was to evaluate the variability and spatial magnitude of the Black Globe Humidity Index (ITGU) in a chicken house during the first week of life using geostatistics and to detect the regions inside the house that the chicks were in a situation of thermal discomfort. The experiment was conducted in a commercial broiler house with Cobb line chicks and a heating system consisting of an indirect air heating industrial furnace. It was observed using the semivariograms that there was spatial variability of the BGHI being adjusted by the Spherical Model and by the Residual Maximum Likelihood (MRV) method. Maps were generated based on the data interpolated by kriging and it was observed that from the fourth day of life, the animals were subjected to thermal conditions different from those recommended by the literature. In addition, a study on the zootechnical indexes: body mass (MC) and weight gain (GP) of chicks during the same period showed that, from the fourth day of life, the chicks presented a worst development than that recommended by the literature, which may be an indicative that the environmental conditions inside the chicken house were influencing their productivity.KEYWORDS: Environment; poultry; thermal comfort; chicks.