Air Conditioners And Dehydration

[holmsidelofts]

Hi all.

Ive been doing some research regarding air conditioning units and dehydration and have come up with some interesting facts that could be the reason for high losses on transporters with active air con units. below are some quotes from different websites on dehydration:

 

One fact which is clearly not well-known, is that air conditioning strongly contributes to dehydration. What most people seem to not realize is that while air conditioning is "drying out the air," it is also drying out one's system, making the possibility of dehydration even more likely and more of a problem.

 

While we rush to the air conditioned confines of our office to avoid the sun's terrible glare, do remember one thing - air conditioning contributes to dehydration as well. The dry air that's constantly pumped in by the a/c dries our skin off moisture. For people who spend most of their time under the a/c, remember to drink enough water everyday!

 

 

Effects of air conditioning:

 

Dehydration.

The cold causing muscle contraction.

The cold causing blood vessel contraction.

The air conditioner may be circulating stale air, chemicals, or other allergens from a ventilation system that hasn't been cleaned out properly.

 

Just food for thought, we always talk about birds coming back dehydrated from races or blame clashing for loss of birds but it could indead be the air con that we use to keep the birds cool that is causes the dehydration added to that the high temperatures that can occur in the basket this could be the answer we are looking for.

 

Whats your thoughts.

 

Jas.

[Guest IB]

Hi Jason, in the mid-1990's the Dutch NPO commissioned a study by one of their University's Animal Health Departments into the welfare of racing pigeons on pigeon transporters during transport to races. The study's findings were adopted by NPO and informed the design of their new generation transporters. I think the Geraldy was modelled on them. The lead 'researcher' was J Gorssen. This study became his PHd thesis and it was published in about 6 different papers 'Gorssen in collaboration with .. ' There is a problem now picking them up on the web - they are all in English, but he uses a slightly different spelling of his name, gorson, or gorsen, can't recall which. I got his PHd and published extracts as Chapters from it on here, but can only find one so far.

 

Also of interest is the 'then' State of the Art transporter built for NFC in 2006, again based on a study, this time by an English University, can't recall which one. The work was published on NFC website, tried that, but doesn't appear to be on there now. Also appeared in BHW.

 

I have Dutch Transporter Study on my zip drive, but can't access it due to a cable fault. This is the only bit of it that I was able to find on this site:-

 

http://forum.pigeonbasics.org/topic/35342-transporting-pigeons-to-races/page__p__544639__hl__gorssen__fromsearch__1entry544639

 

 

http://forum.pigeonbasics.org/topic/34324-adverse-weather-heat-stress/page__p__529821__hl__gorssen__fromsearch__1entry529821

[holmsidelofts]

Hi Jason, in the mid-1990's the Dutch NPO commissioned a study by one of their University's Animal Health Departments into the welfare of racing pigeons on pigeon transporters during transport to races. The study's findings were adopted by NPO and informed the design of their new generation transporters. I think the Geraldy was modelled on them. The lead 'researcher' was J Gorssen. This study became his PHd thesis and it was published in about 6 different papers 'Gorssen in collaboration with .. ' There is a problem now picking them up on the web - they are all in English, but he uses a slightly different spelling of his name, gorson, or gorsen, can't recall which. I got his PHd and published extracts as Chapters from it on here, but can only find one so far.

 

Also of interest is the 'then' State of the Art transporter built for NFC in 2006, again based on a study, this time by an English University, can't recall which one. The work was published on NFC website, tried that, but doesn't appear to be on there now. Also appeared in BHW.

 

I have Dutch Transporter Study on my zip drive, but can't access it due to a cable fault. This is the only bit of it that I was able to find on this site:-

 

http://forum.pigeonbasics.org/topic/35342-transporting-pigeons-to-races/page__p__544639__hl__gorssen__fromsearch__1entry544639

 

 

http://forum.pigeonbasics.org/topic/34324-adverse-weather-heat-stress/page__p__529821__hl__gorssen__fromsearch__1entry529821

 

Excellent read IB thanks for posting. Keep them coming if you do have more on the subject.

 

cheers.

 

jas.