Click on “Download PDF” for the PDF version or on the title for the HTML version.


If you are not an ASABE member or if your employer has not arranged for access to the full-text, Click here for options.

Chapter 2: Thermoregulatory Physiology

Published by the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers, St. Joseph, Michigan www.asabe.org

Citation:  Published in Livestock Energetics and Thermal Environmental Management Chapter 2, pp. 23-48 ( Copyright 2009 American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers)  .(doi:10.13031/2013.28295)
Authors:   Peter E. Hillman
Keywords:   Introduction, Evolutionary Strategies, Zone of Least Thermoregulatory Effort, Behavioral Responses to Heat Stress, Physiological Responses to Heat Stress, Cutaneous Evaporative Heat Loss, Cutaneous Water Loss in Poultry, Effect of Solar Radiation on Sweat

[First paragraphs]: Livestock regulate their core body temperature from about 38C for cattle and swine to about 41.5C for poultry when exposed to a wide range of ambient temperature extremes. All livestock have various mechanisms to protect their core body temperature from rising when exposed to the summer sun or from falling when exposed to the winter cold. Livestock know when to seek shade during the summer, and to huddle or seek shelter during the winter. Other behaviors help keep the animal in thermal homeostasis, such as orientation to the wind or sun, or tucking in their extremities to conserve heat. If behavior is insufficient to maintain their core body temperature during heat stress, they can utilize autonomic responses such as panting, sweating, or vasodilation of the uninsulated extremities. Likewise, when exposed to cold they can shiver or use non-shivering thermogenesis to generate heat above normal metabolic heat production. Livestock vary in body size, type of insulation, thermoregulatory behavior, how they use evaporative cooling, and how their nervous system integrates thermal information into appropriate autonomic responses.

(Download PDF)    (Export to EndNotes)