oxygen levels in birds
Forum: Do birds need oxygenated water?
Air is made up of appox. 21% oxygen. Air acts as a big reservoir for oxygen. Oxygen concentration in water is limited by its solubility:
Borewell/Tube well water has NO DISSOLVED OXYGEN?
“Normal underground water concentrations have little or no dissolved oxygen”
Ref.: Brian D. Fairehild and Casey W. Ritz
The solubility of dissolved oxygen (DO) in water:
• Decreases as temperature increases
• Decreases exponentially with increase in salinity
• Decreases with lower atmospheric pressure and higher humidity.
A little attention & very small investment can make big difference in the form of profits. Oxygenated water gives better results in birds under heat stress by increasing oxygen, feed intake, weight gain & feed conversion ratio.
Oxygenated water has been found to be an effective factor to improve feed efficiency in the birds by improving body metabolism, resulting in a 32% increase in feed efficiency and 12% reduction in feed costs.
Oxygenated water improves water quality by reducing or eliminating harmful gases with availability of higher DO level
Benefits of oxygenated water:
Hygienic water It improves feed efficiency in the bird Minimizes effect of harmful toxins Improves health & livability
Repairs damaged tissues Oxygen supply in poultry houses gets affected due to following reasons:
• Lack of sunlight
• Cloudy whether
• Over-crowding
• Extreme hot temperature
• Air pollutants present in the farm
• Brooder house temperature
In birds blood oxygen levels is considered an essential factor than house oxygen levels. Air pollutants such as ammonia & carbon dioxde reduce oxygen carrying capacity of hemoglobin in the blood, which results into adverse effects to birds eg:
• Hypoxia
• Reduced Hatchability
• Water & weight loss in hatching embryos
• Reduced fetal growth
• Reduced growth
• High incidence of Ascitis
Factors increasing oxygen demand in birds: Oxygen is crucial to bird’s survival Oxygen is required in the “combustion” of feed to produce heat and energy for growth as well as survival. As the air temperature drops, birds require more oxygen to metabolize feed to produce heat into energy. eg: 82 F house requires 20% more energy and 5% more oxygen than one in a 92 F house.
Broilers consume large quantities of feed for growth. which increases oxygen requirement for chick metabolism; unavailability to fulfill this demand leads to heart failure & ascites.
Stress is yet another contributing factor to increase oxygen demand. In summer when temperature increases, oxygen availability decreases in water & air, resulting metabolism in the birds slows down, this again generates demand for oxygen.
Brooders: Heating systems in brooder houses consume more O2 and produce CO2, this requires increase ventilation for oxygen and oxygenated water. Oxygen is required in commercial poultry houses for following benefits:
1. Broilers: To gain body weight rapidly with better metabolism
2. Breeder & Layers: Requires additional oxygen for improved metabolism to assimilate high energy feed.
Dr C S Bedi
Is there any easy method for it?
Can we use o2 enhancer virbac product for poultry (commercial broiler)?
shridhar dilip hande We just finished broiler trials at Fresno State University. Our system increases the dissolved oxygen in drinking water to above 100% saturation. We saved 1/2 pound of feed per bird over forty two days. It was a substantial amount and our birds weight the same as untreated birds.
Sir can you please share your experiment in broiler of dissolved oxygen level increase. because I am interested in studying this topic for incresing smallholders poultry farmers profitability in india .
United States
