Climate Change Impact on Immune Status and Productivity of Poultry as Well as the Quality of Meat and Egg Products

Abstract

The potential impacts of climate change on poultry may include changes in production, reproduction, quality of their products (meat or eggs) and diseases. It is noted that high temperature during the summer season or in regions with hot weather and high relative humidity prevent broiler chicks and laying hens to express their high genotypes, especially when they are raised in an open production system. Current poultry production systems comprise large numbers of birds being housed together making them more susceptible to heat stress. Heat stress not only causes inconvenience and high mortality rate for birds, but results also in lower or lost production which therefore reduces the profitability. Both of production performance and feed conversion ratio are affected by heat stress conditions, which affect the production rate. Other effects associated with heat stress include immunity reduction and weak immune response to vaccines that decrease the resistance of birds to many infectious diseases. In laying hens the production is markedly decrease and does not reach to the peak with declining egg quality (e.g. thin and breakable eggshell) in addition to lower egg weight with small size. This chapter discusses some of the key principles (nutritional or managerial practices) that could be used in order to alleviate the adverse effects resulting from heat stress.