MANIPULATION OF TEMPERATURE OF INCUBATION: effects on thermal preference, characteristics of skin, feathers and bones of broilers

• Grant number: 11/18373-2
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate
• Start date: December 01, 2011
• End date: February 28, 2015
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Animal Husbandry - Animal Production
• Principal Investigator: Isabel Cristina Boleli
• Grantee: Viviane de Souza Morita
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Ciências Agrárias e Veterinárias (FCAV). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Jaboticabal. Jaboticabal , SP, Brazil
• Associated scholarship(s): 12/22133-0 - Responses of fetuses and chicks of eggs from young and old breeders to incubation temperature deviations: glycolytic metabolism and thermogenesis, BE.EP.DR

Abstract

The present study will investigate the influence of incubation temperature on the thermal preference post-hatching of broiler chickens and on hormonal, morphological and physiological characteristics in hatching and throughout raising period. For this, three experiments will be performed. In Experiment 1, fertile eggs of broilers (Cobb ®) will be incubated at 37.5°C and 60% RH until 12 days. From the 13th day of incubation to hatching, two incubators will be maintained at 37.5°C, two incubators will have its temperature raised to 39.0°C, and two more will have their temperature reduced to 36°C. In pre and post hatching the experiment will assess the characteristics of the shells of eggs and hatching of the birds will analyze the characteristics of the skin, feather and bone, measuring T3, T4, GH and calcium in the blood, body temperature and expression of Hsp 70 in the thyroid and pituitary. In Experiments 2 and 3, incubation is performed as in Experiment 1. In Experiment 2, after hatching, will determine the thermoneutral zone of male chicks according to incubation temperature (36°C, 37.5°C and 39°C), which consist of a thermal preference test and a thermal challenge, which will be held on the 1st, 7th, 14th, 21st, 28th and 35th days of life and subsequent days, respectively. In Experiment 3, just after hatching, the male chicks from each treatment incubation (36°C, 37.5ºC and 39°C) will be placed in climate chambers under controlled environment and kept at three different temperatures: thermoneutral recommended for the line, thermoneutral preferred ( determined from the data from Experiment 2) and hot temperature in relation to the thermal preference. At 14, 28 and 42 days old will analyze the characteristics of skin and feather, quantification of T3, T4, GH and calcium in the blood, body temperature and expression of Hsp 70 in the thyroid and pituitary, and only at 42 days, will be analyzed the characteristics of bone and carcass yield of broilers. The data will be submitted to analysis of variance by General Linear Model procedure (GLM) of SAS ® (SAS Institute, 2002) and in case of a statistically significant difference (p <0.05), averages are compared by the Tukey test.

Scientific publications

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

MORITA, VIVIANE DE SOUZA; DE ALMEIDA, VITOR ROSA; MATOS JUNIOR, JOAO BATISTA; VICENTINI, TAMIRIS IARA; VAN DEN BRAND, HENRY; BOLELI, ISABEL CRISTINA. Incubation Temperature during Fetal Development Influences Morphophysiological Characteristics and Preferred Ambient Temperature of Chicken Hatchlings. PLoS One, v. 11, n. 5, MAY 16 2016. (11/18373-2)

Academic Publications

(References retrieved automatically from State of São Paulo Research Institutions)

MORITA, Viviane de Souza. Programação térmica fetal: efeitos sobre a temperatura de preferência e características morfofisiológicas de frangos de corte. 2015. Doctoral Thesis - Universidade Estadual Paulista (Unesp). Faculdade de Ciências Agrárias e Veterinárias. Jaboticabal Jaboticabal.