Effects of Ammonia Concentration in Poultry House on Growth Performance and Conventional Behavior of Broilers under Simulated Conditions

This experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of ammonia concentration in poultry house on growth performance and conventional behavior of broilers under simulated conditions.Four hundred and eighty 21-day-old healthy Arbor Acres broilers with similar body weight of(579.2±6.2) g were randomly allotted into four groups with four replicates in each group and thirty broilers in each replicate.Each group of broilers was placed in a separated,environmentally controlled chamber,and ammonia concentrations in the four chambers were metered continuously to maintain(0±5) mg/kg,(25±5) mg/kg,(50±5) mg/kg and(80±5) mg/kg,respectively.The broilers were raised in cages and provided ad libitum access to water and diets.The experiment lasted for four weeks.On d 21,22,and 23,broilers were videoed by digital video in order to record the conventional behavior.At the end of the experiment,all of broilers were weighted for calculating the average daily gain(ADG),average daily feed intake(ADFI) and feed/gain(F/G).The results showed as follows: 1) ammonia concentration between 0 and 50 mg/kg did not significantly affect ADG and ADFI of broilers(P0.05),while ADG and ADFI of broilers were significantly decreased compared with the control group at the ammonia concentration of 80 mg/kg(P0.05);2) ammonia concentration between 0 and 80 mg/kg had no significant effects on F/G of broilers(P0.05);3) compared with the control group,when the ammonia concentration was 50 mg/kg,the duration of lying of broilers was significantly decreased(P0.05),when the ammonia concentration was 80 mg/kg,the duration of lying of broilers was significantly decreased(P0.01) and the frequency of standing and walking and the duration of standing were significantly increased(P0.05).These results indicate that the accumulation of a mass of ammonia in the poultry house can inhibit the growth of broilers and be detrimental to conventional behavior and health of broilers.