Mike Persia (Virginia Tech) talks about the benefits of Direct-Fed Microbials (also Sulfur Amino Acid supplementation) to help manage the adverse effects of heat stress, in this interview during IPPE 2023 in Atlanta, USA.
This important topic has been on my radar as an animal nutritionist. I added the take-home message from this excellent talk to my list below. Thanks for sharing!
Some solutions to mitigate the adverse effects of heat stress:
1. Dietary considerations:
1.1. stimulate feed intake by feeding crumble; feed during the cool hours as much as possible; increase feeding frequency; top-dress the feed using oyster shell meal, molasses, etc.)
1.2. Increase dietary energy so the birds can get their nutrient requirements despite the impaired feed intake
1.3. Increase dietary amino acids level but not the crude protein level
1.4. Increase the levels of sulfur amino acids to help with antioxidant responses during heat stress
1.5. Add vitamin C to the diet
1.6. Adjust Dietary Electrolyte Balance (DEB) to at least 250mEq/kg
1.7. Sodium bicarbonate might help, especially if there is an eggshell problem
2. Proper ventilation strategy to remove the hot air from the barn (example: tunnel ventilation)
3. Proper water treatment (for example, cooling water as much as possible, which can be done by flushing the drinker line and replace with fresh water)
Dear Dr.Afrouzieh,
The broiler birds have tremendous appetite and they keep eating when feed is there.
Your 7 points are practical and proven. I follow these when our temperatures rise to beyond 40C. We feed the birds at 4am and advise all broiler farmers to lift the feeders to a higher level beyond the reach of the bird after 10am to be brought down again after 5pm.
Lot of people are trying to make business with plant products which do not work.
Cooling of houses with foggers and fans is an economical way to cool houses especially in areas with dry climate. Your work is good and I appreciate.
Thank you
Dr.Kotaiah
Indbro Reserach , India
Mohammad Afrouziyeh
Totally agree i just want to add some more that different organic acids especially citric acid in drinking water will definitely help. Moreover in high humid season, increase the air velocity by installing baffles in the house.
Yes, Dear Bertrand, I agree with you and I have also noticed increased feed intake and feed efficiency when birds are fed during cool hours.
Dr Ram Singh Bibyan
Dietary considerations 1.1 to 1.7 are excellent options.
Addition of plant based products hypo thermic medicines are not useful. Of course keeping the outside temperature is the best solution for birds with no sweat glands
My compliments to Dr. Mohammad for remembering these suggestions that are important for poultry producers, who forget them and then complain about the bad results.
Thank you. I agree with you on all aspects, but in recent decades feed cost has been a crucial issue for poultry production all over the world. So we are looking for sustainable and safe alternatives to minimize the cost of feed, heat stress, energy & protein ratio that really encourage the farmers for poultry production.
I normally advise farmers to feed their birds early in the morning say 6:30 to 7:30am and letter day of afternoon 5 to 6pm and increases the light to 7pm to enable them finish their feed. Fresh water can be served in the afternoon, anything that can add stress to the bords should be avoided
Use of paracetamol @10 mg/kg body weight through drinking water two hours prior to expected peak temperature is useful in maintaining body temperature of broilers.
In layers, paracetamol can be used through feed.
Salicylic acid in the same way can help as anti pyretic in extreme summer conditions and found useful to check heat stroke mortality especially for layer birds