Biomaterial Database

Thermal preferences of chicks brooded at different air temperatures. 1991

H Alsam, and C M Wathes

Department of Animal Husbandry, University of Bristol, Langford, England.

1. The thermal preferences of small flocks of 400 chicks brooded under radiant heaters were determined at air temperatures of 21, 24 and 27 degrees C from observations of behavioural thermoregulation. 2. At 1 d of age the upper limits of the preferred black bulb temperature increased with air temperature. Preferences for radiant temperature declined with air temperature. 3. Compensation for cold air temperature was imperfect because the chicks avoided zones of high radiant flux. The maximum tolerable radiant temperature was approximately 50 degrees C. 4. Radiant heaters are preferable to convectors in poultry husbandry because the inherent lack of spatial homogeneity in thermal environments ensures that chicks can satisfy their individual thermal preferences.

UI	MeSH Term	Description	Entries
D008297	Male		Males
D011897	Random Allocation	A process involving chance used in therapeutic trials or other research endeavor for allocating experimental subjects, human or animal, between treatment and control groups, or among treatment groups. It may also apply to experiments on inanimate objects.	Randomization,Allocation, Random
D002645	Chickens	Common name for the species Gallus gallus, the domestic fowl, in the family Phasianidae, order GALLIFORMES. It is descended from the red jungle fowl of SOUTHEAST ASIA.	Gallus gallus,Gallus domesticus,Gallus gallus domesticus,Chicken
D006799	Housing, Animal	The physical environment in which animals are maintained.	Animal Housing
D000704	Analysis of Variance	A statistical technique that isolates and assesses the contributions of categorical independent variables to variation in the mean of a continuous dependent variable.	ANOVA,Analysis, Variance,Variance Analysis,Analyses, Variance,Variance Analyses
D000818	Animals	Unicellular or multicellular, heterotrophic organisms, that have sensation and the power of voluntary movement. Under the older five kingdom paradigm, Animalia was one of the kingdoms. Under the modern three domain model, Animalia represents one of the many groups in the domain EUKARYOTA.	Animal,Metazoa,Animalia
D013696	Temperature	The property of objects that determines the direction of heat flow when they are placed in direct thermal contact. The temperature is the energy of microscopic motions (vibrational and translational) of the particles of atoms.	Temperatures