The Effects of Different Low Temperature Cold Stimulation on Cort and T4 of China-Lindian Native Chickens

Abstract

In the study, repeat experiments (4 repetitions in groups) were conducted on three factors (interval days, decrease of temperature and stimulation time) and three levels (interval of 0 day , interval of 1 day, interval of 2 days; with temperature decreasing 3℃, temperature decreasing 5℃, with temperature decreasing 7℃ respectively in different tested groups; stimulating time of 1h, stimulating time of 3h, stimulating time of 6h).3-week-old China-Lindian Native Chickens, physically healthy and weighing evenly, were selected. 448 broilers were divided into 28 groups according to the design, 16 chickens in one group, four repeat experiments in one group, four chickens for each repetition. We identified the influence of cold stimuli on welfare of CLNC through detecting physiology welfare indexes. The main physiological welfare index of detection were the levels of CORT and T4. It was concluded from the study that the interval days of cold stimuli had impact on the level of T4 (P 0.05); the decrease of temperature of cold stimuli had no impact on the level of CORT and T4 (P> 0.05); and the time of cold stimuli had no impact on the level of CORT and T4 (P> 0.05).