Submitted to: American Society of Agri Engineers Special Meetings and Conferences Papers
Publication Type: Other
Publication Acceptance Date: July 19, 1999
Publication Date: N/A
Interpretive Summary: This paper describes current methods and equipment used to measure animal responses to environmental stressors. Dynamic responses that are measured include feeding behavior, body temperature, respiration rate, and heat production. Controlled environmental conditions include temperature, humidity, and light in the animal chamber and calorimeters. The discussion nincludes development of the techniques, data collection and application of the data.
Technical Abstract: Research conducted in the Biological Engineering Research Unit at the U.S. Meat Animal Research Center examines animal responses to stressors. These studies require dynamic measurements of both physiological and environmental parameters. This paper describes current methods of monitoring feeding behavior, body temperature, activity, respiration rate, and heat production, as well as the measurement of humidity and a modification to calorimeter environmental controllers to provide cyclic temperatures. Application of recent analytical techniques for evaluating dynamic response measures are also discussed.