%0 Journal Article %T Effect of chronic hypoxia during the early stage of incubation on prenatal and postnatal parameters related to ascites syndrome in broiler chickens %J Iranian Journal of Veterinary Research %I Shiraz University %Z 1728-1997 %A Bahadoran, S. %A Hassanzadeh, M. %A Zamanimoghaddam, A. K. %D 2010 %\ 03/01/2010 %V 11 %N 1 %P 64-71 %! Effect of chronic hypoxia during the early stage of incubation on prenatal and postnatal parameters related to ascites syndrome in broiler chickens %K Hypoxia %K Incubation %K Ascites %K Thyroid %K Broiler chickens %R 10.22099/ijvr.2010.177 %X To investigate the influence of hypoxia during the early stage of incubation on embryonic developmentand hatching events, and consequently on incidence of ascites in broiler chickens, one thousand fertile eggswere incubated in two commercial incubators. Half the eggs were incubated in a low altitude incubator untilhatched. The second half were incubated in a high altitude incubator until day 10 and then transferred to alow altitude incubator. Day-old chicks from each group were housed and reared at a high altitude farm.Chicks from the high altitude incubator hatched earlier and showed significantly higher body weights thantheir counterparts in the lower altitude. High altitude embryos indicated significantly (P<0.001) higherplasma corticosterone, T3 and T4 levels at day 10 and 19 of incubation. During the growing period, highaltitude hatched chickens indicated lower right ventricular hypertrophy and ascites mortality than the lowaltitude hatched chickens. These results indicated that early prenatal hypoxia due to high altitude may change the endocrine functions of embryos, enhanced embryo growth, shorten the hatching process of chickens and consequently decrease the incidence of ascites incidence in broiler chickens. %U https://ijvr.shirazu.ac.ir/article_177_454000c46ff619e3621e8037367687d7.pdf