THERMAL ENVIRONMENTAL ANALYSIS FOR BROILER HOUSING:A CASE STUDY

The knowledge of the thermal environment that occurs inside the broiler housing is highly important when heat stress needs to be avoided, in order to assure good production level. This knowledge can be reached by analyzing the environmental variables such as dry bulb temperature and relative humidity. As known, enthalpy is the physical parameter that relates both, so it was used for evaluating this case study. The objective of this research was to analyze the bird performance at 3 distinct birds densities as a function of the enthalpy results in two experimental treatments, during one broiler growing period: without and with thermal insulation in the roof building. The experiment was carried out at the UNESP, at Jaboticabal city in Brazil, near the Capricorn Tropic. For this case study another mathematical equation can be proposed to perform the enthalpy computation instead of using the usual psychometrical equations. From this mathematical analysis it was concluded that the use of roof insulation was not efficient enough for assuring theoretical thermal comfort conditions for the birds as cited in the literature. Despite this, the analysis of the animal performance leads to a recommendation of the use of roof insulation mainly to reduce the effects of the solar radiation in already built broiler housing.