Objective.

Determinate the existence of a heat stress in broilers and evaluate the effectiveness of the supplementation with an organic Cr product for decreasing or heat stress in broilers.

Materials and Methods.

The existence of heat stress was determined by measuring temperature and relative humidity during the experiment. These indicators were daily registered, every 1 hour, with the use of digital thermo-hygrometers. An amount of 45 male Ross 308 broilers was used, from 1 day of age, belonging to a productive performance experiment with 300 animals. They were distributed in three treatments (control, 200 and 400 ppbCr/kg of diet) according to a completely randomized design, with 4 repetitions of 25 animals each. At the end of this productive cycle, cortisol concentration in blood serum was determined in 15 animals per treatment, as an indicator of stress. Every animal constituted an experimental unit. For the analysis of results, INFOSTAT statistical package was used.

Results.

Temperature-humidity index values during the last 32 days of the experiment ranged between 112.53 and 115.26. Mean values of cortisol concentration were 9.45, 8.91 and 7.66 nmol/L, for the three evaluated treatments respectively. This decrease was not statistically significant.

Conclusions.

The organic Cr product was effective for decreasing heat stress by reducing cortisol concentration, although not significant, in blood serum of broilers. The existence of stress generated by heat during the experiment was confirmed.

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