The Effect of Different Intervention Strategies to Alleviate Heat Stress on Behavior, Performance and Some Blood Parameters of Growing Muscovy Ducks

An experiment was conducted to investigate the effect of heat stress on growing Muscovy ducks during summer season and some strategies to alleviate its adverse effect. Nutrition strategies as addition of ascorbic acid and sodium bicarbonate to feed and welfare improvements as swimming access were assed against heat stress. Forty eight (seven week old) Muscovy ducks randomly allotted into four equal groups; heat stressed group (HS) without any supplementation, ascorbic acid (AA), sodium bicarbonate (NaHCO3) group and swimming access (SWIM). The results revealed that the swimming access significantly improved Muscovy duck welfare by improving body care behavior (preening, head shake, body shake and ruffling) and significantly increased the standing behavior and reduced crouching percent. Results also showed significant reduction in blood corticosterone level and (heterophils/ lymphocyte) H/L ratio for swimming access than other groups. While, swimming access group had significant reduction in relative growth rate than control one.