Geostatistics and Kriging Techniques for Welfare Analysis of Chickens through Enthalpy Distribution in State of São Paulo, Brazil

The current scenario shows a great challenge for animal farm production due to climate changes and their direct impact on quality and productivity levels. It is necessary to study about information standards of thermal comfort situations for animals, for this to be better understood by producers. The locations of rural buildings can be an evidence of the needs for an adequate choice of construction material or efficient cooling system. Researchers of rural buildings and ambient area use environmental physical parameters to characterize the situations to which animals are subjected. One of these parameters is enthalpy, which measures the amount of energy in a system, related with latent and sensible heat. This information allows microclimate thermal analysis of animal production systems. Thus, the present work aimed to assess geostatistical techniques concerning temperature and relative humidity and to calculate the enthalpy in 25 points of the State of Sao Paulo, Brazil, at meteorological stations in summer season. The points were used with ordinary kriging to establish a contiguous map listing all other prediction points through the chosen model. The results show on the maps regions of stress and comfort situations for poultry production between the first until the 6th week, with the areas of higher and lower risk for this production system. Thus, during the period of assessment, it was possible verify kriging maps related with the situation presented greater thermal comfort, suggesting special attention about the adoption of efficient management for poultry production.