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Relationship Between Chick Conformation and Quality Measures with Early Growth Traits in Males of Eight Selected Pure or Commercial Broiler Breeder Strains

N. J. Wolanski^*, R. A. Renema^*, F. E. Robinson^*,1, V. L. Carney and B. I. Fancher

^* Department of Agricultural, Food and Nutritional Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada T6G 2P5; Alberta Agriculture, Food and Rural Development, Livestock Development Division, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada T6H 5T6; and Aviagen Inc., Huntsville, AL 35805

¹ Corresponding author: frank.robinson{at}ualberta.ca

Current commercial broiler products are derived from the crosses of various strains at the primary breeder level. This study investigated chick development, yolk utilization, and early growth rate of males from 8 broiler breeder strains. These strains were a combination of both specialized and commercial-line products. At hatch, 110 male chicks per strain were weighed and wing-banded, and chick quality was assessed. Traits included navel condition, hock color, chick length, shank length, and abdomen score by abdominal palpation (to evaluate residual yolk content on live chicks). At hatch, 50 chicks per strain were dissected to assess breast muscling and residual yolk weight. At 2 wk of age, 50 chicks per strain were dissected to characterize changes in weight, conformation, fleshing, and residual yolk content. Chick weight at hatch varied from 40.8 g in a heavily growth-selected line to a low of 36.9 g in a commercial strain. The mass of residual yolk at hatch ranged from 0.8 to 10.6 g across all chicks dissected at hatch. A heavily breast-selected pure-line strain had 5.8 g of residual yolk in contrast to the commercial strain that had only 3.0 g. Although there were no significant strain differences in abdomen score, this score correlated with dissected residual yolk weight (r = 0.50). Shank length and chick body length at hatch correlated more strongly with BW on d 14 than did hatch weight. This information stresses the importance of evaluating several characteristics at hatch to better quantify early chick quality.

Key Words: chick quality • residual yolk • genetic strain • growth rate