The influence of broiler breeder egg weight at prime production on progeny performance

Abstract

Over the years,’ broiler chickens have been selected and bred for rapid growth within a short period and in the most efficient and profitable way possible. There is an increasing demand for chicken meat from the world’s growing population. It remains a big challenge to provide enough chicken to meet this demand, but the poultry industry has improved some of its breeding, nutritional and management strategies in order to overcome supply-demand problems. One of the main focus points in the broiler industry is to produce meat in the most cost-effective way possible. Inconsistent egg quality in terms of egg size and egg weight from parent flock remains a big challenge that broiler producers face in the production of quality broiler chicks, and subsequently broiler meat. This mainly affects the zero-day body weights and thus final broiler performance parameters to slaughter. The aim of this project was to investigate the effect of broiler breeder egg weight at prime production on progeny performance. The eggs from 46 week old broiler breeder hens where collected and categorised into three different egg weight groups, thus having three treatments. Twenty-eight days before hatch, the 46 week old hens were identified, and separated from the rest of the hens. At 21 days before hatch, the different egg weight groups for these marked hens were separated into the three different groups and marked accordingly (Treatment A- Treatment C). As these marked eggs hatched, they were placed in marked crates according to the three treatments and transported to the farm where the growth trial took place. Over a 35-day growth period, different broiler performance parameters such as body weight (BW), feed intake (FI), feed conversion ratio (FCR), mortalities, and performance efficiency factor (PEF) where measured. Overall, the chicks from the heavier egg weight group (65-68g) showed significantly better performance (BW, FI, FCR, and PEF) compared to the chicks from the lighter (58-61g) and average (62-64g) egg weight group. All weekly and cumulative mortalities was too low for complete analysis to be done. This study suggests that breeder hen flocks in prime production with heavier egg weights produce chicks with the best production performance such as BW, FI, FCR, and PEF.