The aim was to assess the physiological adaptability of 73 hybrid female swine in lactation in the hot climate. The females of 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th parturition orders (PO) were used, distributed in a completely randomized outline, in a factorial arrangement of 5 x 4 x 4, being five PO (1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th), four moments in relation to the delivery (four days before, and on the 3rd, 10th and 17th day after), and four hours a day (8, 12, 16 and 20 h). The rectal temperature oscillated according to the hour of day, the PO, and the moment of evaluation, being greater at 16 h, in primiparous, and in the initial phase of lactation. The breathing frequency remained elevated, mainly between 12 and 16 h, in young females. One concluded that the intense heat between 12 and 16 h leads the animals to the thermal discomfort, mainly the category of smaller adaptability.
Adaptability; breathing frequency; rectal temperature
