The aim of this research is to determine the thermal comfort index, the concentration of gases inside the poultry houses and their influence on the performance of commercial broiler chickens, located in the Paraiba's semiarid region, in summer conditions. It was used two poultry houses, one of them covered with a ceramic roof and the other covered with fibrous cement roof. There was no significant difference (p> 0.05) between ambient temperature (AT), relative humidity (RH) and temperature of the drinking water (Twater) and the chicken litter between the warehouses, but the values average of AT (from 08:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.) and RH (from10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.) can be considered outside the boundary of the comfort zone recommended for chicken broilers, but also the Twater was above the recommended limits, during the day, which is 24º C. None of the chicken broilers showed concentrations of gases that offer an unhealthy ambient to the birds and to the workers. Although the Twater and the index of thermal comfort are elevate during the hottest days, the production indices were within the established for the Brazilian poultry industry.
climatic conditions; productivity; air quality
