Heatstroke Prevention For Poultry

Recently, 250 hens on a farm in France's Hérault department died overnight due to extreme heat. The farm owner stated that her hens were too hot to breathe, with only 50 surviving out of 300. This incident has attracted widespread attention from netizens. In our daily lives, we may also encounter similar sudden events that catch us off guard and cause heavy losses. Through this incident, poultry farmers should pay attention and take various risk prevention measures.

In such high-temperature weather, it is very likely for chickens to suffer from heatstroke. If chickens do get heatstroke, what should we do? The editor from Dingbo Power Generator Set Manufacturer will share some prevention and treatment measures to help everyone solve this problem.

Prevention and treatment measures can include adjusting medication or artificially creating conditions to improve the production environment, reduce temperature, and alleviate the degree of heat stress response.

1.Create a suitable external environment: Most chicken farms (households) have simple chicken coop structures, with no shading plants around and no radiation protection facilities on the roof. Coupled with high chicken density and overcrowding, the temperature inside the chicken coop is often 3-4°C higher than outside. Therefore, plant shading plants around the chicken coop and climbing plants like Boston ivy for heat insulation. You can also use a large number of spray devices outside the chicken coop for artificial rainfall, but be careful not to spray or water a lot inside the chicken coop to avoid increasing stress due to high temperature and humidity.

2.Strengthen ventilation: Before the hot season arrives, if conditions permit, install air conditioning equipment in enclosed chicken coops to reduce the temperature, or install exhaust fans on both longitudinal sides of the chicken coop for longitudinal ventilation to enhance air exchange and exhaust harmful gases. For open chicken coops, install ceiling fans or blowers to strengthen ventilation during the hot season. Practice has proved that the greater the daily temperature difference, the stronger the chickens' ability to resist heat stress.

3.Reduce additional stress: In the case of heat stress, adding additional stress such as immunization and group transfer will only make things worse and increase the degree of heat stress. Therefore, in the hot season, immunization, group transfer and other work should be concentrated in the morning or evening when the air is cooler. Avoid overcrowding of chickens to facilitate heat dissipation.

4.Provide sufficient cool drinking water: Lack of water is more harmful to chickens than lack of food. The water content of adult chickens reaches 50-55%. The digestion and absorption of nutrients, metabolism, blood circulation and body temperature regulation are all inseparable from water. Generally, poultry will die if they lose water for more than 10 hours, so water supply in summer is particularly important. Each chicken needs about 150-350 ml of drinking water per day, which is about 3-4 times that in winter. Therefore, in summer, attention should be paid to providing sufficient drinking water, and it should be replaced frequently to keep the drinking water clean and fresh.

5.Reasonably adjust the diet and feeding methods: After entering midsummer, the feed intake of chickens generally decreases by an average of 10-15%. In hot weather, some chickens even reduce their food intake by more than 30%. Therefore, in order to make up for the insufficient intake of nutrients, the diet should be adjusted reasonably.

The environment inside the chicken coop is also important during chicken breeding, especially modern enclosed chicken coops, which are highly dependent on machinery and electricity. It is best to prepare a diesel generator set as a backup power source to solve the problem of temporary power outage. And regularly maintain fans, circuits, backup power generation and other facilities. If you breeding friends have not prepared a backup power generator set, take action now.

Dingbo Power was founded in 1974 and is one of the earliest manufacturers of generators and diesel generator sets in China. If you want get more information, please feel free to send email to [email protected] we will pay highly attention on your question.