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Abstract:
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Most of Holstein in Indonesia were imported from European countries which have
temperate climate (13-25oC). If those Holstein were kept under high temperature and high
humidity and exposed to direct solar radiation, the cattles would be experienced with heat
stress, resulted in decreasing appetite, increased water intake, decreased metabolism,
increased catabolism, increased heat loss through evaporation, decreased hormone
concentration in blood, increased body temperature, increased respiration and heart rate
and behavioral changes. To reduce the heat stress can be achieved by environment
modification, such as type of animal house construction, type of roof material selected for
animal house and determination of animal housing height. The improvement of
environmental condition was gained for maintaining the animal heat balance in steady
state, due to reducing the thermoregulatory responses (i.e heart rate, respiration rate and
mean body temperature). Controlling the heat stressed animals to lower thermoregulatory
activities will improve their productivity. |