Heat Stress is a physiological response to high environmental temperatures, where the animal is out of its thermo-neutral zone and can no longer effectively regulate its body temperature. Consequently, animal health, well-being and performance are negatively affected.
When pigs are exposed to high environmental temperatures, several behavioural, physiological and metabolic mechanisms are activated to reduce heat production and increase heat dissipation to maintain the body temperature within normal physiological ranges.
The most effective mechanism to reduce heat production is to lower the feed intake. This drop in feed intake is more accentuated as the body weight decreases.
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