Relationship of blood pressure level in chickens to resistance to physical stresses

¹ Physiology Laboratories, Department of Poultry Science, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey

Hypertensive and hypotensive White Leghorn male and female chickens were subjected to low and high temperatures and to exercise. There were no significant differences in the response of hypertensive and hypotensive birds to high temperature. When hypothermia was induced by placing the birds in water at 20 C, survival times of the hypertensive males and females were significantly greater than for the hypotensive birds. When hypertensive and hypotensive birds were made to exercise (treadmill walking) the resistance to fatigue was significantly greater in the females with high blood pressure, but no differences were observed between the two groups of males; both hypertensive and hypotensive male birds exhibited considerably greater resistance to fatigue than did the females.