Ability of Broilers to Resist Heat Following Neonatal Exposure to High Environmental Temperature

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Two trials were conducted to determine whether heat exposure of neonatal broilers had any effect on their growout performance or on their mortality during heat exposure later in life. Broiler chicks, 5 or 6 d old, were exposed to 36.1 C for 24 h in environmental chambers. At 47 d in Trial 1 and at 42 d in Trial 2, the broilers were exposed to 37.8 C for 6.5 h in Trial 1 and 8 h in Trial 2. Early heat exposure did not influence resistance to later heat exposure as measured by mortality. Also, early heat exposure did not affect body weight gain, feed efficiency, or growout mortality.