Stress in poultry: causes, impacts on production and new nutritional solutions
In modern poultry production systems, characterised by high production standards and rapid growth rates, maintaining the animals’ physiological balance is key to ensuring both animal welfare and the profitability of the farm.
Among the most critical environmental and management factors, stress — and in particular heat stress — represents one of the main challenges. Understanding the physiological mechanisms by which poultry respond to stressors and adopting appropriate nutritional prevention strategies is now an absolute necessity for every poultry farmer.
What is stress and why does it affect poultry?
In the fields of veterinary medicine and animal husbandry, we define stress as the body’s overall response to an external stimulus or event (stressor) capable of disrupting homeostasis, that is, the animal’s natural ability to maintain stable internal conditions.
Poultry are particularly sensitive to sudden changes in temperature and environmental stresses due to specific physiological characteristics:
- Lack of sweat glands: unlike mammals, birds cannot sweat to dissipate excess body heat.
- High metabolic rate: modern genetic selection has led to extraordinary growth rates in broilers and high egg production in laying hens. This intense metabolism generates a considerable amount of internal heat, which must be continuously dissipated.
- Unfavourable surface area-to-weight ratio: in rapidly growing individuals, the body surface area available for heat exchange with the external environment is small in relation to their total muscle mass.
The thermoneutral zone and the animal’s response
The thermoneutral zone refers to the temperature range within which an animal does not need to activate energy-intensive compensatory mechanisms to maintain a constant body temperature:
- Broiler chickens: between 18 °C and 21 °C.
- Laying hen: between 18 °C and 24 °C.
When the ambient temperature and humidity exceed these values, the traditional mechanisms of heat dissipation (conduction, convection and radiation) become less effective. The animals are therefore forced to resort to evaporation via open-beak breathing (panting), drastically increasing their respiratory rate to exchange heat through their air sacs.
How can you recognise the symptoms of stress in poultry?
On farms, the presence of animals experiencing heat stress or management-related stress is clearly evident through specific behavioural indicators:
- Open-mouthed breathing (panting) prolonged;
- Wings raised and held away from the body to increase the surface area exposed to the air;
- A sharp reduction in food intake and a simultaneous increase in water consumption;
- Lethargy and a constant search for cooler or more breezy areas;
- Looser stools, caused by both excessive water intake and intestinal disturbances.
The impact on livestock farming: from oxidative stress to financial losses
Stress is not merely a temporary state of discomfort; it triggers a veritable cascade of physiological and metabolic changes. Let’s look at some of them below:
- Oxidative stress and cellular damage: an accelerated metabolism and hyperventilation lead to an excessive build-up of reactive oxygen species (ROS), which are harmful to cell membranes and tissues.
- Impaired intestinal integrity (Leaky Gut): stress reduces blood flow to the digestive system, diverting it to the skin. This damages the cell junctions of the intestinal mucosa, compromising the digestive barrier, impairing nutrient absorption and facilitating the entry of pathogens into the body.
- Decline in performance and quality: there has been a drastic fall in the feed conversion ratio (FCR), a slowdown in weight gain in broilers and a decline in egg-laying rates, accompanied by a deterioration in shell quality and strength in laying hens.
- Increased mortality: during acute events (sudden heatwaves), cardiorespiratory failure can lead to unexpected spikes in mortality.
Key moments of vulnerability in animals
In addition to rising summer temperatures, there are other critical stages in the rearing cycle during which the animal is most vulnerable to stress:
- Settling in and group reorganisation: these are delicate stages of adapting to new environments and group hierarchies.
- Extreme weather events: extreme heatwaves combined with high levels of relative humidity.
- Transport and handling: physical and environmental stresses during transit.
- Peak production phases: periods when metabolic demand is at its highest.
Tecnozoo’s solution: POULTRY FLAMFLUID
To support the physiology and wellbeing of poultry during the most demanding stages and periods of high ambient temperatures, Tecnozoo offers POULTRY FLAMFLUID, a liquid feed supplement designed as a nutritional aid to help maintain the animal’s physiological balance.
POULTRY FLAMFLUID supplements the daily feed ration by harnessing the properties of a selection of botanical extracts and plant-based phytocomplexes rich in bioactive compounds:
- Salix alba and Spirea ulmaria (sources of natural salicylates): these promote general wellbeing and support the body’s physiological response to stress caused by management practices and environmental factors, ensuring excellent gastrointestinal tolerability and helping to maintain organ function even during the hottest periods.
- Turmeric (curcumin): provides valuable nutritional support for the body’s antioxidant defences, helping to regulate the physiological response to oxidative stress and supporting tissue integrity.
- Blackcurrant (anthocyanins and polyphenols): helps protect cells from the effects of free radicals (ROS) during periods of intense molecular metabolism, supporting the animal’s natural adaptation during the most critical stages of the rearing cycle.
The benefits of POULTRY FLAMFLUID for your farm
The inclusion of POULTRY FLAMFLUID provides valuable nutritional support for poultry farming, offering a range of benefits for animal physiology and productivity:
- Supports the body’s antioxidant defences: helps the body combat oxidative stress at a cellular level.
- Balance of the gut flora: helps maintain the physiological balance of the gut microbiota, contributing to healthy digestion and supporting the intestinal barrier.
- Support for physiological recovery: helps the animal adapt to changes in its environment and management, thereby helping to maintain its natural homeostasis.
- Support for heat tolerance: helps maintain physiological metabolic balance and sustain consistent performance even in challenging environmental conditions.
Stress management in poultry requires a combined approach: on the one hand, the optimisation of rearing facilities (adequate ventilation, cooling or misting systems, correct stocking density); on the other, targeted and timely nutritional support.
Combining proper farm management with a natural, scientifically formulated product such as POULTRY FLAMFLUID enables the farmer to safeguard the animals’ welfare, boost production output and protect the farm’s profitability.
Would you like to find out more about POULTRY FLAMFLUID and Tecnozoo’s nutritional solutions for the poultry sector?
Get in touch with our specialist Tecnozoo technicians or drop us a line!
