TY - JOUR
T1 - Effect of body weight on uniformity, livability, and skeletal development and strength of broiler breeder females
AU - Asensio, X.
AU - Piedrafita, J.
AU - Puente, A.
AU - Barroeta, A. C.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2020, © 2020 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
PY - 2020/1/1
Y1 - 2020/1/1
N2 - An experiment was conducted with broiler breeder females (up to 30 wks of age) to study the effect of body weight (BW) at 5 wks on BW uniformity, livability, and skeletal development and strength. At 5 wks of age, 160 females were randomly selected within a flock of 1,988, and they were reared without grading. Among these 160 females, the 40 with the lowest BW (Light Non-Graded, LNG) and the 40 with the highest BW (Heavy Non-Graded, HNG) were studied. LNG females, compared to HNG, had a higher BW coefficient of variation (CV) from 10 to 25 wks (P ≤ 0.05). At 25 wks, mortality of the LNG females was higher (20.0% vs. 2.5%, P = 0.027); they had shorter tibias (P ≤ 0.05), and a tendency to lower-tibia breaking strength (P = 0.085) and elastic modulus (P = 0.072). At 5 wks, their alkaline phosphatase was lower (2781 UI vs. 3839 UI, P = 0.023), and taking together 5 and 10 wks their osteocalcin was also lower (976 ng vs. 1239 ng, P = 0.029). Results indicate that without grading in rearing, light females had lower BW uniformity, lower livability, shorter and less resistant tibias than heavy females.
AB - An experiment was conducted with broiler breeder females (up to 30 wks of age) to study the effect of body weight (BW) at 5 wks on BW uniformity, livability, and skeletal development and strength. At 5 wks of age, 160 females were randomly selected within a flock of 1,988, and they were reared without grading. Among these 160 females, the 40 with the lowest BW (Light Non-Graded, LNG) and the 40 with the highest BW (Heavy Non-Graded, HNG) were studied. LNG females, compared to HNG, had a higher BW coefficient of variation (CV) from 10 to 25 wks (P ≤ 0.05). At 25 wks, mortality of the LNG females was higher (20.0% vs. 2.5%, P = 0.027); they had shorter tibias (P ≤ 0.05), and a tendency to lower-tibia breaking strength (P = 0.085) and elastic modulus (P = 0.072). At 5 wks, their alkaline phosphatase was lower (2781 UI vs. 3839 UI, P = 0.023), and taking together 5 and 10 wks their osteocalcin was also lower (976 ng vs. 1239 ng, P = 0.029). Results indicate that without grading in rearing, light females had lower BW uniformity, lower livability, shorter and less resistant tibias than heavy females.
KW - Broiler breeders
KW - grading
KW - skeletal development and strength
KW - uniformity
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85087824527&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/09712119.2020.1789647
DO - 10.1080/09712119.2020.1789647
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85087824527
SN - 0971-2119
VL - 48
SP - 320
EP - 325
JO - Journal of Applied Animal Research
JF - Journal of Applied Animal Research
IS - 1
ER -