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The effect of thermal environment on the digestion of broilers
Author(s) -
Hai L.,
Rong D.,
Zhang Z.Y.
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
journal of animal physiology and animal nutrition
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.651
H-Index - 56
eISSN - 1439-0396
pISSN - 0931-2439
DOI - 10.1046/j.1439-0396.2000.00223.x
Subject(s) - relative humidity , digestion (alchemy) , amylase , chymotrypsin , trypsin , chemistry , food science , zoology , digestive tract , humidity , digestive enzyme , enzyme , biology , biochemistry , medicine , chromatography , physics , thermodynamics
Summary Two experiments were conducted to determine the effect of thermal environment on the digestion of broilers. In both experiments the birds were exposed to three temperatures: 5, 21, and 32° C, and relative humidity was maintained at 60%. In experiment one, the amount of chyme in the whole digestive tract was decreased by the cold environment (5° C, 60% relative humidity) and increased by hot environment (32° C, 60% relative humidity), compared with control environment (20° C, 60% relative humidity). The expelling of digesta from the crop or small intestine was suppressed by high temperature (32° C) (p < 0.01). In experiment two, the activities of trypsin, chymotrypsin, and amylase were affected significantly by different environmental temperatures (p < 0.01). Compared to normal environment, the activities of the three kinds of enzymes in intestinal juice were decreased by the hot environment: trypsin (p < 0.01), chymotrypsin (p < 0.05), and amylase (p < 0.01), respectively. The activities of the three kinds of digestive enzyme were not influenced by the cold environment.