THE EFFECT OF SEASONAL VARIATIONS ON BROILER INTERNAL ENVIRONMENT

A field study was carried out on two broiler farms (controlled environment ,conventional ventilation ) in Eastern Region of KSA to investigate the effect of indoor ambient climatic conditions { ambient temperature ,Ta°C and Relative humidity, RH %) and gaseous pollutants { ammonia (NH3) & carbon dioxide (CO2) ppm } during winter and summer on birds internal environment (body temperature ,Tb & hemoglobin concentration (Hb) and heterophil / lymphocyte ratio H/L  ratio). The results revealed highly significant differences between seasons for Ta (P=0.001) and less significance for RH % (P=0.063). NH3 gas level showed no significant difference within seasons, while CO2 in winter was significantly high-er than in summer (P =0.001). Ta in winter did not correlate with Tb, but negatively correlated with Hb (P=0.001) while positively correlated in summer with Tb and negatively correlated with H/L ratio (P=0.001 for both). Indoor RH % in winter was correlated positively with Tb (P0.034) and negatively with both H/L ratio (1). 0.026) and Hb (P=0.001) but in summer it was negatively correlated with Tb and Hb (P=0.001). Ammonia gas in winter was not significantly correlated with bird measures, while in summer positively correlated with Hb and H/L ratio (P=0.001). CO2 gas in winter was negatively correlated with Hb (P=0.001) and H/L (P=0.003) but in summer was positively correlated with Tb (P=0.004).