Rimena do Amaral Vercellino

Broiler surface temperature distribution of 42 day old chickens

No Brasil frangos de corte sao normalmente alojados de 1 ate 42 dias, quando sao expostos a procedimentos como: jejum, apanha, colocacao em caixas e transporte ate o abate. Manter a homeostase do corpo e de grande importância para a sobrevivencia de frangos de corte sob ambiente quente, especialmente na 7a semana de crescimento. A perda de calor varia nas partes do corpo e esta relacionada a temperatura do ar e a cobertura de penas. Avaliou-se a distribuicao da temperatura superficial usando o processamento de imagens de câmera termografica infravermelho, para caracterizar a temperatura superficial de frangos de corte de 42 dias de idade, no periodo anterior a apanha para o abate. Os frangos foram alojados de 1 a 42 dias e, antes de serem apanhados e transportados para o abate, foram registradas temperaturas superficiais infravermelho durante o dia.. Os resultados dos termogramas das regioes com penas e sem penas foram comparados, durante o 42o dia. Alta correlacao entre regioes sem penas e a temperatura ambiente foi encontrada, mostrando que estas areas respondem rapidamente a alteracoes no ambiente do alojamento. Duas funcoes foram desenvolvidas para predizer a temperatura superficial das regioes com e sem penas, do corpo de frangos com 42 dias, sendo conhecida a temperatura do ar do ambiente.

Ammonia emissions in tunnel-ventilated broiler houses

Gas production in broiler houses and their emissions are closely related to the microclimate established inside the house according to air temperature, humidity, and velocity. Therefore, the internal house environment is influenced by building typology and ventilation system. The objective of the present study was to evaluate ammonia emission rates in broiler houses equipped with different ventilation systems (negative or positive pressure) and litter conditions (new or built-up). The environment of six commercial broiler houses was evaluated internal and external NH 3 concentrations. Ventilation rates were recorded to estimate ammonia emission rates. The efficiency of circulation and exhaust fans was assessed, and higher ventilation rates were determined in negative-pressure houses due to the higher flow of the fans. Houses with new litter increased ammonia emission rates along the rearing period, indicating the relationship between gas emissions, bird age and ventilation rates, and presented a typical curve of NH 3 emission increase. Negative-pressure houses with built-up litter presented higher emission rates during the first rearing week due to the high NH 3 concentration during the brooding period, when the ventilation rates required to maintain chick thermal comfort are low. Although the results of the present study indicate an advantage of the positive-pressure systems as to gas emissions, further research is needed reduce gas emissions in broiler houses with negative-pressure systems.

Uso da termografia infravermelha na análise da termorregulação de cavalo em treinamento

Heat-regulation mechanisms, such as changes in peripheral blood flow, are activated by thermal stress to maintain body homeostasis. The infrared thermography enables to identify changes in blood flow and it has been valuable for recognizing stress in animals. This research aimed to evaluate the use of infrared thermography in the training horse thermoregulation. An Anglo-Arab horse was studied and exercised once a day. Infrared thermography images of horse´s armpit, croup, breast and groin and physiological parameters were taken before and after exercise and 0, 5 and 10 minutes after shower for eight days. The air temperature, relative humidity and air velocity were also registered. There were no differences between the surface temperature of croup and breast and the treatments, implying low participation in thermoregulation. However, the armpit and groin temperature increased after the exercise and decreased after shower, suggesting that vasomotor mechanisms were activated to heat exchange. Similar results were found for physiological parameters which show organism thermal responses for heat loss. It was concluded that infrared thermography allowed accuracy in determining the horse body surface temperature and it was possible to infer on thermoregulation.

Geoestatística para a avaliação do controle ambiental do sistema de ventilação em instalações comerciais para frangos de corte

The ventilation and cooling systems are important to environmental control inside broilers house enabling the bird to express the maximum potential of production. The aim of this study was to evaluate, using geostatistical analysis, the influence of the ventilation system and the different typologies of building in relation to thermal welfare and air quality in broilers house with birds in the final phase. The broiler facilities evaluated were: Blue House - ventilation systems with exhaust fans and nebulizers, Dark House - ventilation systems with exhaust fans and pad cooling and Solid Wall - ventilation systems with exhaust fans and pad cooling. The attributes evaluated were dry bulb temperature, relative humidity, air velocity, concentration of carbon dioxide and ammonia, during the summer time at 2PM on 52 equidistant points inside the building. The data analysis was by statistical and geostatistical. Geostatistical analysis was an efficient tool to evaluate distribution of environmental conditions in the broilers houses and was able to identify the influence of presence or absence of evaporative panel inside conditions.

Data Mining Applied to Horse Thermal Comfort

Thermal comfort plays a critical role in body temperature regulation. Heat-regulation mechanisms, such as changes in peripheral blood flow, are activated by thermal stress to maintain body homeostasis and it can results in a fluctuation of skin temperature. Although thermal comfort of horse has been studied, its relation with surface temperature is rarely seen in the literature. Therefore, the aim of this study was to verify the potential of data mining techniques in knowledge discovery by associating surface temperature with thermal comfort of horses. The decision tree model presented 74.0% of accuracy and all attributes of dataset were considered relevant for the classification problem. The results revealed the potential of data mining techniques to equine thermal comfort classification problems

Different light intensity on the behavior and welfare of commercial broiler chicks.

In Brazil, the use of buildings with negative pressure system is increasing. The influence of different colors of side curtains on bird’s behavior is unknown. Depending on the curtain’s color its causes more or less luminosity inside the building, especially because the birds are photosensitivity. The luminosity has direct influence on the incidence of leg problems, and the UV rays may prevent it. This research aimed to evaluate the use of different curtain’s colors of broiler houses with negative pressure system with an emphasis in behavior and the incidence of leg problems. Three poultry farms located in Tiete / SP and Cerquilho / SP were studied, where treatment T1 was a negative pressure broiler house with black curtain, treatment T2 negative pressure broiler house with blue curtain and treatment T3 negative pressure broiler house with yellow curtain. Environmental data, animal behavior and the incidence of leg problems were monitored, during 3 flocks. Also, variable “Comfort TA” was created to evaluate the environmental conditions of the studied broiler houses. It was found a significant difference in bird’s behavior between treatments and some of them were related to luminosity. There was no relation between the incidence of leg problems with the light intensity and ultraviolet rays. The behavior of birds was influenced by the environmental variables.

Sound Levels in a Wean-to-Finish Facility in Brazil

Abstract: Wean-to-finish is a popular production facility in the United States and is increasing in Brazilian swine production. In wean-to-finish facilities, pigs are weaned directly into a finishing style building and remain there until slaughter. The study of sound levels is characterized by the vocalizations emitted by a group of animals. The sounds may indicate stress, discomfort, fear, or any other emotional disorder. This study aimed to evaluate the sound levels emitted by different group sizes (22, 24, 26, 28 and 30 animals per pen) and stocking densities (1.12, 1.02, 0.94, 0.88, 0.82 animals/m²) in a wean-to-finish swine production system. The experiment was divided into four periods: phase 1(13.40 kg initial weight to final weight 37.95 kg), phase 2 (37.96 initial weight to final weight 60.30 kg), phase 3 (60.31 initial weight to final weight 86.86 kg) and phase 4 (86.87 initial weight to final weight 125 kg). Decibelimeters with automatic scale of 30 to 130dB located at the center of each pen were used to record the sound levels every 30 seconds. Statistical analysis was done using ANOVA and Tukey’s test and were performed using SAEG (System for Genetic Analysis and Statistics). The results showed lowest sound levels for the smallest group size studied (22 animals). The highest mean sound level of 61.4 dB occurred in the 26 animals/pen group size, which was within the allowable limit of 85 dB specified in NR15 Brazilian norm. It can be concluded that main sound level emitted by pigs in a wean-to-finish facility is within the limits recommended by a Brazilian norm.