Monitoring deep body temperature responses of broilers using biotelemetry

A popular notion among researchers is that management of animal environment s could be improved with the use of physiological data, collected in real t ime. This is a sort of "listen to the patient" approach to climate control. What variables to monitor and just how to use them is the subject of much research. Deep body temperature (DBT) has been pointed out in the literatur e as a potential indicator of heat stress, in this paper, we describe a num ber of investigations into the responsiveness and on-line measurability of DBT in commercial broilers, A biotelemetry system monitored DBT responses o f broilers to changes in ambient temperature and relative humidity. Birds w ere less able to maintain their DBT when increases of ambient temperature o ccurred at faster rates. These results indicate that DBT is quite responsiv e to changes in the ambient environment. This together with the fact that r esponses could be measured on-line, make DBT a good stress indicator in pou ltry.