diff --git a/app.yml.sample b/app.yml.sample
index a4bcb3b3..f2dd6851 100644
--- a/app.yml.sample
+++ b/app.yml.sample
@@ -93,6 +93,10 @@
 ## this value is used as the timeout argument to the producer.publish function.
 #amqp_publish_timeout: 2.0
 
+# AMQP heartbeat interval (see: https://www.rabbitmq.com/docs/heartbeats). Set
+# to false or 0 to disable heartbeats.
+#amqp_heartbeat: 580
+
 # AMQP does not guarantee that a published message is received by the AMQP
 # server, so Pulsar can request that the consumer acknowledge messages and will
 # resend them if acknowledgement is not received after a configurable timeout
diff --git a/docs/configure.rst b/docs/configure.rst
index fb1dc748..41b40c5f 100644
--- a/docs/configure.rst
+++ b/docs/configure.rst
@@ -222,6 +222,10 @@ In the event that the connection to the AMQP server is lost during message
 publish, the Pulsar server can retry the connection, governed by the
 ``amqp_publish*`` options documented in `app.yml.sample`_.
 
+By default, `AMQP heartbeats`_ are enabled at an interval of 580 seconds. This
+can be adjusted by setting ``amqp_heartbeat`` or disabled by setting it to
+``false`` or ``0``.
+
 Caching (Experimental)
 ----------------------
 
@@ -241,3 +245,4 @@ and future plans and progress can be tracked on `this Trello card <https://trell
 .. _RabbitMQ: https://www.rabbitmq.com/
 .. _app.yml.sample: https://github.com/galaxyproject/pulsar/blob/master/app.yml.sample
 .. _Two Generals Problem: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two_Generals%27_Problem
+.. _AMQP heartbeats: https://www.rabbitmq.com/docs/heartbeats
diff --git a/pulsar/client/amqp_exchange.py b/pulsar/client/amqp_exchange.py
index 1921131c..e27bbaad 100644
--- a/pulsar/client/amqp_exchange.py
+++ b/pulsar/client/amqp_exchange.py
@@ -74,6 +74,7 @@ def __init__(
         publish_uuid_store=None,
         consume_uuid_store=None,
         republish_time=DEFAULT_REPUBLISH_TIME,
+        heartbeat=DEFAULT_HEARTBEAT,
     ):
         """
         """
@@ -102,6 +103,7 @@ def __init__(
         self.__exchange = kombu.Exchange(DEFAULT_EXCHANGE_NAME, DEFAULT_EXCHANGE_TYPE)
         self.__timeout = timeout
         self.__republish_time = republish_time
+        self.__heartbeat = heartbeat
         # Be sure to log message publishing failures.
         if publish_kwds.get("retry", False):
             if "retry_policy" not in publish_kwds:
@@ -137,10 +139,13 @@ def consume(self, queue_name, callback, check=True, connection_kwargs={}):
             callbacks.append(callback)
         while check:
             heartbeat_thread = None
+            if self.__heartbeat:
+                connection_kwargs["heartbeat"] = self.__heartbeat
             try:
-                with self.connection(self.__url, heartbeat=DEFAULT_HEARTBEAT, **connection_kwargs) as connection:
+                with self.connection(self.__url, **connection_kwargs) as connection:
                     with kombu.Consumer(connection, queues=[queue], callbacks=callbacks, accept=['json']):
-                        heartbeat_thread = self.__start_heartbeat(queue_name, connection)
+                        if self.__heartbeat:
+                            heartbeat_thread = self.__start_heartbeat(queue_name, connection)
                         while check and connection.connected:
                             try:
                                 connection.drain_events(timeout=self.__timeout)
diff --git a/pulsar/client/amqp_exchange_factory.py b/pulsar/client/amqp_exchange_factory.py
index 94f41f57..102cbbfc 100644
--- a/pulsar/client/amqp_exchange_factory.py
+++ b/pulsar/client/amqp_exchange_factory.py
@@ -15,6 +15,8 @@ def get_exchange(url, manager_name, params):
     )
     if params.get('amqp_acknowledge', False):
         exchange_kwds.update(parse_ack_kwds(params, manager_name))
+    if params.get("amqp_heartbeat") is not None:
+        exchange_kwds["heartbeat"] = params.get("amqp_heartbeat")
     timeout = params.get('amqp_consumer_timeout', False)
     if timeout is not False:
         exchange_kwds['timeout'] = timeout