Poultry Management Strategies to Alleviate Heat Stress in Hot Climates: A Review

Abstract

Heat stress remains a major challenge affecting poultry production in sub-tropical and tropical environments; hence it continues to receive attention. The present study aimed to discuss heat stress and its effects on poultry production and suggests mitigation strategies to combat the effects of increased environmental temperature on poultry performance. Poultry raised in hot climates suffers from heat stress, which reduces meat and egg production, reproductive performance, feed intake, and feed conversion efficiency leading to poor growth rates. Reduced feed intake results in a reduction in meat quality, growth, egg yield, and quality. A decrease in feed utilization efficiency is the major cause of poor growth performance in hot environments. To counteract the negative impacts of high ambient temperatures on the performance of poultry, a wide range of management practices are widely used, including nutrient manipulations (particularly protein and energy), electrolyte and vitamin supplementation, feed form (especially particle size and moisture content), choice feeding, controlled feeding, time of feeding, wet feeding, water management, and use of new breeds that thrive well in hot environments. These management practices help lower heat load and facilitate evaporative cooling, all of which may positively impact poultry performance and health. Keywords: Choice feeding, Feed conversion efficiency, Heat stress, Poultry production