Collin, A., INRA, UR83 Recherches Avicoles, F-37380 Nouzilly, France
Bedrani, L., INRA, UR83 Recherches Avicoles, F-37380 Nouzilly, France
Loyau, T., INRA, UR83 Recherches Avicoles, F-37380 Nouzilly, France
Mignon-Grasteau, S., INRA, UR83 Recherches Avicoles, F-37380 Nouzilly, France
Metayer-Coustard, S., INRA, UR83 Recherches Avicoles, F-37380 Nouzilly, France
Praud C., INRA, UR83 Recherches Avicoles, F-37380 Nouzilly, France
De Basilio V., Universidad Central De Venezuela, Facultad de Agronomia, Apdo. 4579, Maracay, Venezuela
Requena Rodon, F., Produccion Animal, Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Agropecuarias, Instituto Nacional de Investigaciones Agricolas, 2101 Maracay Aragua, Venezuela
Bastianelli, D., CIRAD, Systèmes d'élevage et produits animaux, TA C-18/A, Campus international de Baillarguet, F-34398 Montpellier, France
Duclos, M.-J., INRA, UR83 Recherches Avicoles, F-37380 Nouzilly, France
Tesseraud, S., INRA, UR83 Recherches Avicoles, F-37380 Nouzilly, France
Berri, C., INRA, UR83 Recherches Avicoles, F-37380 Nouzilly, France
Yahav, S., Institute of Animal Science, The Volcani Center, Bet Dagan 50250, Israel

The selection of fast-growing chickens has favored muscle mass without similar improvement of the cardiovascular and respiratory systems involved in thermoregulation. Indeed, broiler chickens have limited capacities to sustain high temperatures, with reduced performances during moderate and chronic heat exposure, and depressed welfare, morbidity and mortality during acute heat exposure. During the last decade, a great effort concerned early thermal acclimation. This strategy requires a fine tuning of incubation conditions (temperature, phasis of embryogenesis, duration of exposure) favoring long term thermotolerance. Consequences on growth performance and meat quality were also evaluated. Perinatal heat acclimation is aimed at inducing epigenetic thermoregulatory mechanisms that modulate body temperature on a long term. If it is further proved to be efficient on a large scale, early thermal acclimation could favor poultry sturdiness towards temperature variations without affecting growth performance. In this paper, we will review the main techniques of early thermal exposure and the physiological bases of their use. We will focus on the research axes concerning the comprehension of underlying mechanisms and the interest of this technique for poultry species.