Abstract

Environmental heat stress is one of the most challenging conditions which have adverse effect on the poultry industry. Broiler chickens are sensitive to heat stress mainly due to not having sweat glands. The current study was conducted to observe the effect of heat stress on performance of Ross-308 broiler chickens. 1600 Ross-308 broiler day old chicks were obtained from local hatchery and randomly divided into two groups, the heat stress group A (n = 800) and heat free group B (n = 800). Group A was reared in high temperature (1010F) whereas group B was reared in ideal temperature. To evaluate the physiological stress indicators blood glucose levels and total blood cell count were checked on day 21 and 28. The parameters observed were; feed intake, body weight gain, feed conversion ratio, water intake and carcass yield. The results indicated that feed intake, weight gain, water intake, feed conversion ratio and carcass yield were significantly higher in group B compared to group A. It was concluded that heat stress has deleterious effect over the performance of broiler Ross-308 chicken.