The main goal of this study was to evaluate the environmental conditions inside two commercial broiler houses equipped with different cooling systems: wet cellulose pads associated with misting (SRPN) and wet black screen pads associated with misting (SRSN). In the studied broiler houses, located in Itaberaí, Goiás, Brazil, four thermal variables (temperature, black globe temperature and humidity indices, thermal radiation load and enthalpy), three physiological responses (rectal temperature, skin temperature and respiration frequency), and three productivity performance indexes (weight gain, feed intake and feed conversion) for broiler chickens were evaluated. The results indicate that the evaluated systems were not sufficient to promote thermal comfort conditions for the birds and in general, no significant statistical difference was noticed between the performances of the birds raised in the two broiler houses. The mortality rate in the SRSN system was 15% higher than in the SRPN system, however, both are lower than those suggested for the birds under study.
Broiler; thermal comfort; physiological responses; productive performance
