review · Frontiers in Veterinary Science
Heat stress causes substantial financial losses for poultry producers in tropical and arid regions. Commercial broiler chickens are particularly susceptible because of their rapid metabolism and high internal heat production. High temperatures and humidity harm bird physiology, health, welfare, behaviour, and overall farm productivity. Managing this issue requires interventions tailored to different stages of bird development. Before and during breeding, gene mapping and genetic selection offer promising methods to breed heat-resistant lines. During embryonic development or early life, thermal conditioning helps poultry build tolerance to high temperatures experienced in adulthood. For growing chicks and adult birds, nutritional adjustments such as altered feeding times, wet feeding, and dietary manipulations, paired with environmental controls, reliably reduce heat stress. Ongoing climatic pressures mean targeted mitigation strategies remain essential across the poultry production cycle.
Rising temperatures pose severe risks to livestock welfare and food security, especially in hotter climates. Heat-stressed poultry experience reduced health and output, generating major economic losses for farmers. Understanding practical interventions across the bird lifecycle, from breeding to daily feeding routines, gives producers clear options to safeguard flock welfare, protect farm incomes, and maintain meat and egg supplies during extreme weather.
The review identifies applied and testing-stage interventions for poultry producers and commercial breeders. Breeding companies can use gene mapping and selective breeding tools to produce heat-tolerant stock. Hatcheries can apply early thermal conditioning techniques, while farm managers can implement ready-to-use nutritional practices such as nighttime or wet feeding alongside climate control systems. These methods offer near-market and immediately applicable routes to reduce flock mortality and protect commercial yields.
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Heat stress is a threat that can lead to significant financial losses in the production of poultry in the world's tropical and arid regions. The degree of heat stress (mild, moderate, severe) experienced by poultry depends mainly on thermal radiation, humidity, the animal's thermoregulatory ability, metabolic rate, age, intensity, and duration of the heat stress. Contemporary commercial broiler chickens have a rapid metabolism, which makes them produce higher heat and be prone to heat stress. The negative effect of heat stress on poultry birds' physiology, health, production, welfare, and behaviors are reviewed in detail in this work. The appropriate mitigation strategies for heat stress in poultry are equally explored in this review. Interestingly, each of these strategies finds its applicability at different stages of a poultry's lifecycle. For instance, gene mapping prior to breeding and genetic selection during breeding are promising tools for developing heat-resistant breeds. Thermal conditioning during embryonic development or early life enhances the ability of birds to tolerate heat during their adult life. Nutritional management such as dietary manipulations, nighttime feeding, and wet feeding often, applied with timely and effective correction of environmental conditions have been proven to ameliorate the effect of heat stress in chicks and adult birds. As long as the climatic crises persist, heat stress may continue to require considerable attention; thus, it is imperative to explore the current happenings and pay attention to the future trajectory of heat stress effects on poultry production.
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DOI: 10.3389/fvets.2023.1255520
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