Genetic effects of aging on fitness and nonfitness traits in laying hens housed three per cage

Department of Animal and Poultry Science, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, N1G 2W1, Canada.

Three White Leghorn strains, their two-way crosses, and two commercial lines were used to study the effects of aging on several parameters related to performance of fitness and nonfitness traits during the first laying cycle of hens housed three per cage. Egg number of the survivors (EPF) and egg number including mortality and morbidity (EPM) were divided into 12 periods of 28 d each, starting at age at sexual maturity. Egg weight (EW), specific gravity (SG), and albumen height (AH) were measured at 240, 350, and 450 d of age. Mean heterosis was significant over time, except for AH, increasing in magnitude with age for EPF, EPM, EW, and AH. Reciprocal effects were more important for egg quality than for egg production traits and were influenced by age. The age-related changes in additive, Z-chromosome, and heterotic effects varied among strains, showing that strains differ in their genetic schemes in response to aging. Nonadditive, environmental, and phenotypic variances increased with age for all traits. Additive variance increased with age for EPF, EW, and AH. Z-chromosome variance increased with age for EW and AH. Heritabilities decreased with age, except for EPF and AH. On average, genetic variance increased with advancing age. Improvement in lifetime performance may be obtained by selecting birds at older ages. As the relative increase with age in additive variance was larger for egg production than for egg quality traits, selection for the latter could be performed at early stages.