phaidra.vetmeduni.ac.at o:3856 DOI 10.3390/vetsci11120618 Effect of a Broiler-Specific Light Spectrum on Growth Performance and Adrenocortical Activity in Chickens: A Pilot Study on a Commercial Farm This study evaluated the effect of a broiler-specific light spectrum on productive performance corticosterone (fCC) and androgen dehydroepiandrosterone (fDHEA) concentrations in feathers, and glucocorticoid (GCMs) and androgen (AMs) metabolites in droppings of broilers. Two groups of female Ross 308 broilers were reared under white LED (WL, n = 9000) and broiler-specific LED (BSL, n = 9000) lights. The body weight (BW) of 150 randomly selected animals/groups was measured weekly. Droppings and feathers were collected at the end of the cycle (29 days) from 20 animals/group. The BSL group showed higher final BW than WL (1407 ± 11 vs. 1341 ± 15 g, respectively; p< 0.001) and higher indices of uniformity (76.8% vs. 61.2% animals in the 10% around the mean, respectively; p< 0.001). No difference between groups was found in fCC and fDHEA concentrations or in the fCC-fDHEA, indicating similar long-term HPA axis activity during the cycle. A higher concentration of GCMs was found in the BSL group, indicating higher glucocorticoid secretion before sampling, with neither a difference in AMs nor in GCMs-AMs. Finally, there was a positive correlation between fCC and fDHEA and between GCMs and AMs (p< 0.01). Our findings suggest that the use of broiler-specific light improved the productivity performances of chickens without long-term consequences on HPA activation. However, the results of this pilot study in a commercial farm setting must be interpreted with caution and need confirmation eng Quality-Of-Life Monochromatic Light Corticosterone Metabolites Wild Songbird Stress Dehydroepiandrosterone Plasma Birds Dhea Green 2025-02-07T12:55:40.856Z LOMv1.0 Author BEGIN:VCARD VERSION:3.0 N:Galosi;Livio; FN:Livio Galosi X-ORCID:https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5094-8359 END:VCARD BEGIN:VCARD VERSION:3.0 N:Todini;Luca; FN:Luca Todini X-ORCID:https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2820-6388 END:VCARD BEGIN:VCARD VERSION:3.0 N:Menchetti;Laura; FN:Laura Menchetti X-ORCID:https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8500-7970 END:VCARD BEGIN:VCARD VERSION:3.0 N:Carbajal;Annaïs; FN:Annaïs Carbajal X-ORCID:https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4339-6661 END:VCARD BEGIN:VCARD VERSION:3.0 N:Palme;Rupert; FN:Rupert Palme X-ORCID:https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9466-3662 END:VCARD BEGIN:VCARD VERSION:3.0 N:Ruggiero;Nicola; FN:Nicola Ruggiero END:VCARD BEGIN:VCARD VERSION:3.0 N:Falconi;Roberto; FN:Roberto Falconi END:VCARD BEGIN:VCARD VERSION:3.0 N:Roncarati;Alessandra; FN:Alessandra Roncarati X-ORCID:https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8926-3362 END:VCARD https://w3id.org/kim/hcrt/scheme https://w3id.org/kim/hcrt/text Textdokument Text LOMv1.0 yes https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 application/pdf 980312 https://phaidra.vetmeduni.ac.at/o:3856 https://phaidra.vetmeduni.ac.at/api/object/o:3856/thumbnail LOMv1.0 discipline