Evaluation of the environmental parameters of battery-caged poultry house in the humid tropical climate

Abstract

Heat stress is a key factor affecting the productions of the animals. In laying birds, it could cause loss of body weight and high mortality. To this end, a study was carried out in a naturally ventilated, tier-caged layer house to evaluate the environmental parameters and the heat stress index within the building during hot weather period. Throughout the study, the environmental parameters (air temperature, relative humidity and air velocity), inside and outside the experimental building were measured and recorded. The heat stress index using the temperature-humidity index (THI) was also estimated. The results of the study indicated that laying birds in this study were most of their lifetime subjected to hot conditions which could have a significant effect on their performances. It was also found out that the air velocity within the building was very low (0.07 ms-1 to 0.58 ms1) which could not provide a cool environment for the birds. The heat stress index (THI) inside laying bird building was found to be mostly influenced by high relative humidity compared to ambient temperature. Therefore, it would be appropriate if the airflow distribution inside the poultry building, in this study, could be evaluated using computational fluid dynamics to understand the velocity profile within the building. This could assist engineers to redesign the building and make it appropriate for laying birds in the humid tropical climate.