Author(s)

Etimad Alattar¹, Khitam Elwasife², Eqbal Radwan^1*

¹Biology Department, Faculty of Science, Islamic University of Gaza, Gaza, Palestine.
²Physics Department, Faculty of Science, Islamic University of Gaza, Gaza, Palestine.

Environmental conditions including light are considered a critical element of chicks well-being. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of LED light on the physical traits of chicks. We took forty-one-day-old chicks and randomly separated it into two groups. The chicks in the first group were reared under the effect of incandescent lamp light and in the second one were under the effect of white LED lighting. Chicks were daily monitored for individual chick body, weight gain, feed intake, feather color and fear responses. The distance between chicks and source of light was 50 cm. Student’s t-test test was used for statistical evaluation at p < 0.05 level. The results of the current study showed that chicks reared under incandescent light bulb had significantly higher body weight compared with chicks reared under LED light. The magnitude of body weight in LED group was lower (1192.75 ± 149.9 g) compared to incandescent light group (1307.75 ± 110.5 g). The obtained results revealed that LED light reared chicks were more active; it showed long mobility duration and high levels of exploration in the farm as compared to those in incandescent light group. The results also indicated that incandescent light chicks were less fearful than LED chicks. Furthermore, the study showed that LED light reared chicks have pale pink combs and white feathers that cover all over the body. On the other hand, incandescent light reared chicks have dark red combs and whitish-yellow feathers that cover certain areas of the body especially chick wings, tail and head.

Light Emitting Diode, Incandescent Bulb, Fear Response, Physical Traits, Tonic Immobility Test

Alattar, E. , Elwasife, K. and Radwan, E. (2019) The Effect of Light-Emitting Diode Light on the Physical Traits of Chicks. Open Journal of Animal Sciences, 9, 481-491. doi: 10.4236/ojas.2019.94037.