BIOCLIMATIC CHARACTERIZATION OF AN EXPERIMENTAL SHED BROILER CREATION IN THE REGION OF DIAMANTINA-MG

Abstract

The objective of this study was to evaluate the bioclimatic conditions of an experimental shed broiler Federal University of Vales do Jequitinhonha and Mucuri (UFVJM) in JK campus in Diamantina, MG. The assessment was made based on the measurement of environmental variables of air temperature, relative humidity, black globe temperature and air velocity within the facility, in 42-day trial. With the collected data we calculated the temperature and humidity index (THI), the black globe temperature and humidity index (BGTHI), the radiation heat load (RHL) and the enthalpy index (Hº). The performance was evaluated at 42 days of age the broiler chickens through the parameters live weight (LW), average daily gain weight (ADGW), feed intake (FI), feed conversion ratio (FCR) and production viability (PV). It was found that most of the trial period the temperature inside the shed was out of thermal comfort zone for birds and the relative humidity was found above the recommended limits, except in the 15:00. The THI was below the comfort zone until the second week, indicating that the birds were in cold stress in this period. The BGTHI at 21:00 was outside the recommended throughout the experimental period. RHL and the Hº also were below the recommended throughout the trial period, indicating little amount of heat in the facility where the animals were housed. The performance of the broiler chickens proved to be lower than expected. In this sense, it is recommended to make changes in the shed to: reduce air intake, decrease the volume of air to be heated in the first weeks of bird life and provide additional heating to the shed level in order to, provide the best thermal comfort and hence higher performance of broilers.