Investigação do conforto térmico em granja avícola composta por galpões de diferentes características construtivas

Abstract

Taking into consideration the expansion of egg-producing poultry, in addition to economic importance of this country and the relevance of environment in poultry houses to minimize losses in the poultry production, the aim of this study was to investigate the thermal comfort of poultry by means of thermal comfort indicators, at a poultry farm composed by warehouses with different materials and constructive techniques. This study was carried at a poultry farm with approximately 18 thousand egg-laying hens in the municipality of Cachoeira do Sul in the central region of Rio Grande do Sul. The poultry farm has eight warehouses with 2,8 m of tall 3,0 m width and 95,0 m of length, five five of these are oriented in an east-west direction and the others are oriented in a north-south direction. In addition, the warehouses have different constructive techniques with regard to closing of curtains (with or without) and the covering material (ceramic tile and fiber cement tile). The data collection took place in the winter from 08/02/2022 to 09/21/2022 in four warehouses. The continuous collections were carried with a data logger in 4-hour interval and the punctual collections were carried with black globe thermometer and infra-red thermometer, they data were used to analyze the spatial variability of thermal comfort indicators. The geostatistical analysis and the maps were generated by ordinary kriging method. The thermal comfort indicators assessed in this study indicate that the poultry are not in the thermal comfort zone, because they are susceptible to cold (predominant) and heat stress (in some moments). The indicators present variability in the warehouses with lower values in the east extremity (warehouse oriented in east-west direction) and in the south extremity (warehouse oriented in north-south direction). The warehouse, whose is oriented in east-west direction, is covered with fiber cement tile and curtains closed, presented better results of thermal comfort indicators. For improvement of poultry comfort, it is recommended the appropriate use of curtains with the management of opening and closing them to reduce cold and heat stress and, consequently reduces losses in the poultry production or higher consumption of feed.