A modern lighting concept in poultry

Light is one of the most important environmental elements, which has an impact on the health and physiological state of poultry. It is all purpose synchronizer of the most organism biologic cycles and it is used in poultry keeping as the factor, which regulates poultry productivity, growth and sexual maturation of growing birds. Actually almost all new build construction poultry houses are equipped with LED lighting systems, and in present poultry houses incandescent lamps and fluorescent light sources are substituted for LED lamps as soon as possible. Appearance of LEDs as light sources let improve lighting concepts and methods in poultry keeping in a good quality, provide not only raising of light equipment energy efficiency but also improvement of poultry zootechnical indexes significantly. Operation experience of LED light systems shows that electricity consumption reduces to 10-12 times in comparison with incandescent lamps, and with fluorescent light sources - to 3 times. Usage of lower supply voltage of LED lamps (up to 50 Volt) helps to provide whole new electrical safety level of operating personnel and poultry, gives an opportunity to use individual lighting of each cage. Modern management of lamps luminous flux on the basis of pulse-width modulation of supply voltage provides an opportunity to make the best use of modern regimes of intermittent light in poultry houses. Studies, carried out in Federal Scientific Center “All-Russian Research and Technological Poultry Institute”, make it possible to state about positive effect of LED light systems usage on poultry zootechnical indexes and improvement of poultry keeping conditions, also with the help of control of such light radiation parameters as colour temperature (wavelength). Currently accumulated data and experience of using of LED light systems need generalizing and analysis. This process is resulted in modern conception of lighting in poultry keeping as the system of views, aspects and recommendations, which allows to use present LED lighting to maximum effect and define the way of further development.