The effects of hypoxia on the metabolic and cardiorespiratory responses to shivering produced by external and central cooling in the pigeon.

Respiratory, cardiovascular and blood gas responses of pigeons to spinal cord cooling (36 +/- 1 degrees C), to ambient cooling (Ta = 5 degrees C) and to simultaneous spinal cord and ambient cooling were measured at three different levels of fractional inspired oxygen concentration (FIO2 = 0.209, 0.10 and 0.07). Shivering and the 'extra' VO2 provoked by ambient and/or spinal cord cooling were more or less reduced during hypoxic exposure depending on the intensity of cold stress and hypoxic states. At FIO2 = 0.10 shivering was markedly reduced and sometimes inhibited, whereas at FIO2 = 0.07 any pattern of cold tremor was inhibited. The accompanying cardiorespiratory responses were similar to those of thermoneutral controls exposed to the same FIO2. The amount by which VO2 was reduced in the pigeons exposed to hypoxia during ambient and/or spinal cord cooling was correlated, at both levels of hypoxia, to the thermoregulatory VO2 (viz. the 'extra' VO2 produced by cooling) prior to exposure to the hypoxic gas. The effect of hypoxia on shivering and associated cardiorespiratory adjustments was rapid and was completely reversible on return to air. We conclude that the thermoregulatory system in pigeons is sensitive to hypoxia, as is the case for mammals. The FIO2 that begins to inhibit thermoregulatory and metabolic responses to cold is lower in birds, perhaps as a result of the better ability of the bird to increase intrapulmonary gas and blood O2 convective transports when exposed to hypoxic gas.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)