Abstract

Housing conditions play critical role in regulating the influence of outside weather on animals. The present study was carried out to compare the weather parameters outside and inside the animal houses and the chances of thermal stress (TS). Daily recordings of ambient temperature (AbT), relative humidity (RH) and temperature humidity index (THI)from in house (IH) and outdoor (OD) recordings were compared across months, quarters and half years over a period of one year. Weather parameters showed significant variation between IH and OD recordings with higher AbT and THI inside irrespective of months or seasons, while the pattern of RH variables were opposite with higher values OD than IH. AbT variables were found to contribute significantly more to THI than RH. Besides difference in the highest and lowest of weather parameters across months and seasons, their range of variation was also inconsistent between IH and OD recordings. It is concluded that in spite of regulation by the same environmental factors, the difference in the pattern of IH weather parameters making prone to more TS can be attributed to the housing conditions and calls for better interventions to regulate the IH conditions to minimize TS in animals.

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