Climatic Change and Chicken Immunity
Akrum M. M. Hamdy
Abstract As the most socio-economic problems in the world, climatic change is
an issue that will cause most damaging for those least able to adapt. But nobody is
immune to climatic change—making it a truly global problem. Climate change affirm
that the pollution of our atmosphere could result in extreme weather events. With
intensify in global temperatures, processes such as desertification are transforming
once thriving areas into arid environments. Since warm air is capable of stocking huge
quantities of water, due to higher evaporation rates, storms and other extreme climate
events have become more frequent and extremist. The challenges posed by climatic
change fit broadly into one of two categories: loss of productivity or increasing costs.
Stress is the nonspecific response of the body to any demand, whereas stressor can
be defined as “an agent that produces stress at any time”. Therefore, stress represents
the reaction of the animal organism to stimuli that disturb its normal physiological
equilibrium or homeostasis, due to the mess up of energy and water balances through
the evaporative heat loss mechanism. Concerning the effects of heat stress on chickens, the following findings were reported: (1) energizing glucocorticoid-dependent
mechanisms and increasing the corticosterone serum levels (2) decreases in the feed
consumption, growth rates, the intestinal villi heights, and the wet and dry weights of
jejunum, the total white blood cell count; (3) decreases in the number of peripheral
blood lymphocytes and induction of an electrolyte imbalance; (4) decreases in the
blood lymphocytes and spleen weight; (5) decreases in macrophage activity and (6)
decreases in CD4+ and CD8+ lymphocytes and decreases the antibody production
against sheep red blood cells (SRBC).
Keywords Climatic change · Heat stress · Heat balance · Chicken production ·
Chicken immunity
A. M. M. Hamdy (B)
Animal and Poultry Production Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Minia University, Minia,
Egypt
e-mail: akrum312@hotmail.com
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
E.-S. E. Omran and A. M. Negm (eds.), Climate Change Impacts on Agriculture and Food
Security in Egypt, Springer Water, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-41629-4_21
499
Akrum M. M. Hamdy
Abstract As the most socio-economic problems in the world, climatic change is
an issue that will cause most damaging for those least able to adapt. But nobody is
immune to climatic change—making it a truly global problem. Climate change affirm
that the pollution of our atmosphere could result in extreme weather events. With
intensify in global temperatures, processes such as desertification are transforming
once thriving areas into arid environments. Since warm air is capable of stocking huge
quantities of water, due to higher evaporation rates, storms and other extreme climate
events have become more frequent and extremist. The challenges posed by climatic
change fit broadly into one of two categories: loss of productivity or increasing costs.
Stress is the nonspecific response of the body to any demand, whereas stressor can
be defined as “an agent that produces stress at any time”. Therefore, stress represents
the reaction of the animal organism to stimuli that disturb its normal physiological
equilibrium or homeostasis, due to the mess up of energy and water balances through
the evaporative heat loss mechanism. Concerning the effects of heat stress on chickens, the following findings were reported: (1) energizing glucocorticoid-dependent
mechanisms and increasing the corticosterone serum levels (2) decreases in the feed
consumption, growth rates, the intestinal villi heights, and the wet and dry weights of
jejunum, the total white blood cell count; (3) decreases in the number of peripheral
blood lymphocytes and induction of an electrolyte imbalance; (4) decreases in the
blood lymphocytes and spleen weight; (5) decreases in macrophage activity and (6)
decreases in CD4+ and CD8+ lymphocytes and decreases the antibody production
against sheep red blood cells (SRBC).
Keywords Climatic change · Heat stress · Heat balance · Chicken production ·
Chicken immunity
A. M. M. Hamdy (B)
Animal and Poultry Production Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Minia University, Minia,
Egypt
e-mail: akrum312@hotmail.com
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
E.-S. E. Omran and A. M. Negm (eds.), Climate Change Impacts on Agriculture and Food
Security in Egypt, Springer Water, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-41629-4_21
499