Evaporação cutânea e respiratória em ovinos sob altas temperaturas ambientes

ABSTRACT - Ten adult Corriedale sheep were evaluated for respiratory ( E R ) and cutaneous ( E C ) evaporation rates. The animalswere observed about 10 times each by recording changes in their live weigth with high-sensitiviy strain gauges, under different conditions of airtemperature (21.1 to 41.9 o C) and partial vapour pressure (1.53 to 3.01 kPa). Average evaporation rates were 0.7599±0.0094 g.h -1 .kg -1 for E R and 1.3029 ±0.0591 g.h -1 .kg -1 for E C . Cutaneous evaporation was considered as an important heat loss mechanism for sheep in hotenvironments. There were discussed the effects of sex, fleece thickness, air temperature, and air humidity.Key Words: cutaneous evaporation, heat loss, respiratory evaporation, sheep 1 Professor Titular, Departamento de Zootecnia, Faculdade de Ciencias Agrarias e Veterinarias, UNESP. 14884-900 Jaboticabal, SP. E-mail: rgomes@fcav.unesp.br 2 Professora Assistente Doutora, Faculdade de Veterinaria, Universidade de Franca, Franca, SP. E.mail: barbante@fcav.unesp.br