Efficacy of different cooling systems on broiler performance during hot-humid season

Heat stress is a major cause of reducing the production performance of chicken in Northern India. The hot-humid period of summer with a temperature of more than 35ºC with high relative humidity extends over almost 3 months from June to August. Experiment was conducted to study the efficacy of different types of cooling systems on growth performance of broiler chicks (3–6 weeks) during hot-humid months of summer. The study was conducted on 480 day-old broiler chicks during Hot–Humid (July-August 2010) period. During this period the effect of Exhaust-Fan (EF) and Ceiling-Fan (CF) on the growth rate, feed efficiency, carcass characteristics and level of antioxidant enzymes were compared in broiler chicks with control (without any cooling system) group.In this experiment, day-old broiler chicks was randomly divided into two treatment and one control groups, each having 160 birds in 4 replications, of 40 numbers in each group. With use of CF and EF as source of cooling during hot-humid period, temperature was significantly reduced by 0.21°C and 0.39°C and relative humidity was significantly reduced by 2.65 and 2.74%, respectively, than the control group. The THI (Discomfort index) found significantly lowered in the EF group (83.28) following by CF (83.59) and the control groups (84.34). Body weight gain was (P<0.05) higher in EF (1872g) group following by CF (1829 g) and the control groups (1763 g). Growth performance with respect to body weight gain, FCR, PER, EER were found (P<0.05) better in the EF following by CF and control groups. The level of antioxidant enzymes viz., LPO, Catalase, G6PD enzymes were significantly influenced by the all the cooling treatments.It was concluded that both the cooling system had significant effect on the comfort and production efficiency of broiler chicks during hot-humid season. The Exhaust-Fan system was found to be more efficient than Ceiling-Fan system.