TY - JOUR TI - Suitability of Inguinal and Axillary Sites for Temperature Measurement Using Digital Thermometers: A Comparison with Rectal Thermometry in Broiler Chicken SP - 191 SN - 2322-455X EP - 198 N1 - Department of Animal Science, School of Agricultural Sciences, The University of Zambia, P.O. Box 32379, Lusaka, Zambia; Department of Biomolecular Resources and Biolab Sciences, College of Veterinary Medicine and Biosecurity, Makerere University, P.O. Box 7062, Kampala, Uganda KW - Axillary site; Broiler chicken; Cloacal site; Digital thermometer; Inguinal site; Temperature AV - public A1 - Abigaba, R. A1 - Sianangama, P.C. IS - 2 PB - Scienceline Publication, Ltd JF - Journal of World's Poultry Research VL - 13 Y1 - 2023/06/25/ ID - eprints767 N2 - Core body temperature is one of the physiological parameters that must be assessed during the monitoring of the thermic and or health status of broiler chickens. In this regard, cloacal thermometry is a standard method used for temperature measurement although it has many drawbacks. This study was conducted to explore the suitability of other anatomical sites for temperature measurement using a digital thermometer. This was a single-factor experiment that considered the anatomical site as the main factor with three levels (treatments), including cloacal (DTtcloacal), axillary (DTtaxillary), and inguinal (DTtinguinal) sites. Out of 84 broiler chickens, a total of 28 chickens were randomly selected for temperature measurement. The temperature was measured for each anatomical site, and the readings were analyzed using appropriate statistics. The cloacal site had the highest mean temperature (41.40 ± 0.17°C), while the lowest mean value was observed for the axillary site (41.12 ± 0.19°C). There was no significant difference between the mean cloacal and inguinal temperatures. The cloacal and inguin.al temperature readings were significantly correlated. The results for the cloacal and inguinal temperature measurements revealed a non-significant bias. The agreement interval between these two methods was sufficiently lower than the maximum acceptable difference between the anatomical sites. Both cloacal and inguinal temperature measurements had similar median points. The results indicated an underestimation of the temperature readings for the axillary site compared to those of the other sites. In conclusion, this study has revealed that the application of a digital thermometer using the inguinal site gives temperature readings that are similar to those of the conventional cloacal method. © 2023, Journal of World''s Poultry Research. All Rights Reserved. UR - https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85164612131&doi=10.36380%2fjwpr.2023.21&partnerID=40&md5=dccba50936b6ac9eb488cf7d2f333018 ER -