Determination of upper limits of the thermal comfort zone for quails acclimatized in Brazil 22-35 days old

Abstract

The objective of this research was to determine the temperature comfort, evaluated in terms of temperature and indices Black Globe Temperature and Humidity (BGTH), appropriate to the creation of quails in the final phase. Were housed 300 quails in different thermal environments. Each group of 60 birds were distributed randomly into 03 chambers, with 10 birds per pen (cage), totaling 15 treatments. The treatments were: CP - Comfort Pressed (temperatures of 26 and 25 oC, respectively, for fourth and fifth week of creation); MH - Moderate heat (30 °C for the fourth and fifth week of creation) and HS - Heat Severus (33 oC for the fourth and fifth week of creation). During the fourth week of creation quail (22-28 days), the best value of BGTH was 75.8 ± 0.9 and for the fifth week of creation (29-35 days) BGTH 75.3 ± 0, 7 (indicative of thermal comfort for this age). It was found that: quail maintained in thermal stress (either hot or cold) during the initial phase can not recover the end of the life cycle, even when reared under conditions of thermal comfort in the initial stage after this period, while kept at temperatures of heat stress is moderate or severe chronic, can not keep up with the normal performance, demonstrating the need to ensure that the thermal environment of poultry is kept in accordance with the appropriate requirements for each age of the quail.