Misting as a method to reduce heat stress in poultry houses.

The BroilerNet project involves a bottom-up approach to identify challenges and innovation needs for broiler farmers in Europe, and to collect promising and already successfully implemented Good Practices to meet the challenges in question. The top Good Practices selected by experts within the three thematic areas (animal health management, animal welfare, and sustainability) have been summarized in factsheets. Barn climate management can be complex, depending on the geographical location of a poultry farm, especially in the context of climate change where heatwaves are becoming increasingly frequent. Animal mortality due to heatwaves results in economic losses of approximately 12% in chicken farming (ITAVI, 2004). This is therefore one of the main challenges faced by farmers. To ensure optimal thermal comfort for the birds and maintain good zootechnical performances year-round, poultry farmers are increasingly turning to air cooling systems, such as high-pressure water spraying (misting) as an effective measure to prevent heat stress. Misting significantly reduces losses during heatwaves, mitigating them by approximately 90% for broiler chickens (ITAVI, 2004). However, although it is already widely used in France and across Europe, its adoption is not yet universal.