Desenvolvimento e validação de um modelo matemático para o calculo da área superficial de frangos de corte

Abstract

Surface area (As) of poultry is an important input parameter in heat and mass transfer calculation; thus, it was aimed with the present work to develop and to validate an empirical model to estimate the broiler chicken’s surface area. Eighty four Ross broiler chickens were used in this research, thirty seven male and forty seven female, with body masses during all growth phase. In the laboratory, each randomly selected chicken had its dimensions (length, width and height) and body mass evaluated. The chicken skin with feathers was taken off to determine As. Portion of the data was used to fit the equation to estimate the surface area and another portion was used to validate it. Results showed that the empirical equation to determine As was statically significant (P<0.0001) and it presented a coefficient of determination of 0.9886, being subsequently validated via t test (P>0.05).