Suitability of Inguinal and Axillary Sites for Temperature Measurement Using Digital Thermometers: A Comparison with Rectal Thermometry in Broiler Chickens

Core body temperature is one of the physiological parameters that must be assessed during the monitoring of the thermic and or health status of broiler chickens. In this regard, cloacal thermometry is a standard method used for temperature measurement although it has many drawbacks. This study was conducted to explore the suitability of other anatomical sites for temperature measurement using a digital thermometer. This was a single-factor experiment that considered the anatomical site as the main factor with three levels (treatments), including cloacal (DTtcloacal), axillary (DTtaxillary), and inguinal (DTtinguinal) sites. Out of 84 broiler chickens, a total of 28 chickens were randomly selected for temperature measurement. The temperature was measured for each anatomical site, and the readings were analyzed using appropriate statistics. The cloacal site had the highest mean temperature (41.40 ± 0.17℃), while the lowest mean value was observed for the axillary site (41.12 ± 0.19℃). There was no significant difference between the mean cloacal and inguinal temperatures. The cloacal and inguinal temperature readings were significantly correlated. The results for the cloacal and inguinal temperature measurements revealed a non-significant bias. The agreement interval between these two methods was sufficiently lower than the maximum acceptable difference between the anatomical sites. Both cloacal and inguinal temperature measurements had similar median points. The results indicated an underestimation of the temperature readings for the axillary site compared to those of the other sites. In conclusion, this study has revealed that the application of a digital thermometer using the inguinal site gives temperature readings that are similar to those of the conventional cloacal method.