Abstract
Previous study and our laboratory have reported that short-wavelength (blue and green) light and combination stimulate broiler growth. However, short-wavelength stimuli could have negative effects on poultry husbandry workers. The present study was conducted to evaluate the effects of human-friendly yellow LED light, which is acceptable to humans and close to green light, on broiler growth. We also aimed to investigate the potential quantitative relationship between the wavelengths of light used for artificial illumination and growth parameters in broilers. After hatching, 360 female chicks (“Meihuang” were evenly divided into six lighting treatment groups: white LED strips (400–700 nm, WL); red LED strips (620 nm, RL); yellow LED strips (580 nm, YL); green LED strips (514 nm, GL); blue LED strips (455 nm, BL); and fluorescent strips (400–700 nm, FL). From 30 to 72 days of age, broilers reared under YL and GL were heavier than broilers treated with FL (P < 0.05). Broilers reared under YL obtained the similar growth parameters with the broilers reared under GL and BL (P > 0.05). Moreover, YL significantly improved feeding efficiency when compared with GL and BL at 45 and 60 days of age (P < 0.05). In addition, we found an age-dependent effect of light spectra on broiler growth and a quantitative relationship between LED light spectra (455 to 620 nm) and the live body weights of broilers. The wavelength of light (455 to 620 nm) was found to be negatively related (R 2 = 0.876) to live body weight at an early stage of development, whereas the wavelength of light (455 to 620 nm) was found to be positively correlated with live body weight (R 2 = 0.925) in older chickens. Our results demonstrated that human-friendly yellow LED light (YL), which is friendly to the human, can be applied to the broilers production.
Highlights
Colored artificial light has been reported to affect metabolic activity and improve productive performance in poultry for many years
The present study was conducted to evaluate the effects of human-friendly yellow light-emitting diodes (LEDs) light, which is acceptable to humans and close to green light, on broiler growth
Our results demonstrated that human-friendly yellow LED light (YL), which is friendly to the human, can be applied to the broilers production
Summary
Colored artificial light has been reported to affect metabolic activity and improve productive performance in poultry for many years. Incandescent lamps [1], fluorescent lamps [2], ultraviolet (UV) light lamps [3], commercial colored lamps [4] and filtered light [5] have been successfully used in poultry production. Green light has been reported to improve growth [2, 6,7,8], mature female Japanese quail were found to have lower body weights when reared under green light or blue light compared with those reared under red light or white light emitted from an incandescent lamp [9]. Green light has been found to enhance early chick embryo growth, as did blue [11] and ultraviolet (UV) light [3]
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