article · Oxidative Medicine and Cellular Longevity
Monochromatic blue light can alleviate the negative biological impacts of heat stress on commercial broiler chickens. In tests using two common strains, Ross 308 and Cobb 500, birds exposed to high temperatures alongside blue light showed improved biological responses compared to those kept under standard white light. The blue light treatment lowered malondialdehyde concentrations, elevated superoxide dismutase and catalase enzyme activities, and favourably altered their gene expression. It also mitigated liver tissue damage caused by elevated temperatures. Furthermore, blue light regulated several key heat shock protein and transcription factor genes across both strains, with Cobb chickens demonstrating a significant reduction in rectal temperature linked directly to heat shock gene expression. Overall, lighting broilers with blue light improves their physiological resilience and performance under thermal stress.
Heat stress poses a serious challenge to poultry health and welfare, often causing tissue damage and physiological distress. Demonstrating that simple modifications to housing illumination, such as switching to monochromatic blue light, can boost antioxidant defences and reduce physical stress markers provides a non-invasive way to protect broiler chickens during high-temperature conditions.
Poultry producers and lighting equipment manufacturers could apply these findings to design specialised blue light regimens in broiler housing to counter thermal stress. As an experimental study conducted on commercial Ross 308 and Cobb 500 strains at 21 days of age, the work represents applied, laboratory-tested research that requires further validation in full-scale commercial farm settings before market deployment.
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In a novel approach, monochromatic blue light was used to investigate its modulatory effect on heat stress biomarkers in two commercial broiler strains (Ross 308 and Cobb 500). At 21 days old, birds were divided into four groups including one group housed in white light, a second group exposed to blue light, a 3rd group exposed to white light + heat stress, and a 4th group exposed to blue light + heat stress. Heat treatment at 33°C lasted for five h for four successive days. Exposure to blue light during heat stress reduced MDA concentration and enhanced SOD and CAT enzyme activities as well as modulated their gene expression. Blue light also reduced the degenerative changes that occurred in the liver tissue as a result of heat stress. It regulated, though variably, liver <i>HSP70</i>, <i>HSP90</i>, <i>HSF1</i>, and <i>HSF3</i> gene expression among Ross and Cobb chickens. Moreover, the Cobb strain showed better performance than Ross manifested by a significant reduction of rectal temperature in the case of H + B. Furthermore, a significant linear relationship was found between the lowered rectal temperature and the expression of all HSP genes. Generally, the performance of both strains by most assessed parameters under heat stress is improved when using blue light.
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DOI: 10.1155/2017/1351945
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