Ammonia in the Atmosphere during Brooding Affects Performance of Broiler Chickens

Abstract

Broiler chickens were exposed to 0, 50, 100 and 200 ppm of ammonia in the atmosphere during the 0- to 28-day brooding period; ammonia exposure was stopped after 28 days. Ammonia exposure adversely affected weight gains, feed conversion, and mortality during brooding. Birds exposed to ammonia weighed significantly less at market age even though ammonia exposure stopped at 28 days. The effect on feed conversion, however, reversed during grow-out so that ammonia-exposed birds had better feed conversions at 49 days than those not exposed, primarily because of reduced body size for exposed birds. When birds were kept additional time to compensate for the reduced growth, feed conversion increased to about the same as for non-exposed birds.