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Fasting and Diet Affect the Tolerance of Young Chickens Exposed to Acute Heat Stress^1,2,3,

Department of Poultry Science, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina 27650

The interaction of nutritional status on the tolerance of young chicks to acute heat stress (HS) was investigated. The results of experiment 1 demonstrated that fasting for 24, 48 or 72 hours progressively increased survival time (ST) of chicks exposed to HS. When compared to that of non-fasted (NF) chicks ST more than doubled for 48 and 72 hour fasted chicks. During HS plasma glucose increased in fasted chicks but decreased in NF chicks. Conversely, plasma free fatty acids decreased in fasted chicks and increased in NF chicks. Plasma phosphate of all chicks fell markedly as a result of HS. Chicks of experiment 2 were fed a "carbohydrate-free" diet (CF). Survival time of NF chicks fed CF was significantly greater than that of NF chicks fed a diet containing glucose. The apparent metabolic responses of NF chicks fed CF corresponded to those of fasted chicks of experiment 1. It was suggested that the metabolic substrate utilized by chicks during HS influences ST. The effect of CF diet on ST was also observed in chicks which were fasted for 48 hours prior to HS. Plasma phosphate of chicks exhibiting fasting metabolic responses was not significantly different at heat induced prostration despite marked differences in ST. The results of experiment 3 demonstrated that ST of fasted (24 hour) chicks previously fed a low phosphorus diet was markedly lower when compared to that of fasted chicks fed adequate dietary phosphorus. The effect of diet was found to be dependent on metabolic status since level of dietary phosphorus fed had no effect on ST of NF chicks. The results of the present study indicated that metabolic and nutritional status affect the tolerance of young chicks acutely exposed to high ambient temperature.

KEY WORDS: • fasting • heat stress • "carbohydrate-free" diet • phosphorus

¹ Some of these data were presented at the 62nd annual meeting of the American Institute of Nutrition, Atlantic City, New Jersey, April 9–14, 1978. Federation Proc. 37, 280 (Abstr.).

² Paper No. 5951 of the Journal Series of the North Carolina Agricultural Research Service, Raleigh, North Carolina 27650.

³ Mention of trade names does not imply endorsement by the North Carolina Agricultural Research Service.

⁴ Present address: Department of Nutrition, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, New Jersey 08903.

⁵ Author to whom reprint request should be addressed.

Manuscript received 22 March 1979.

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