Incubation characteristics and their relation to the age of the parent flock for broiler production

Abstract

The aim of this study was to examine the incubation characteristics of hatching eggs from one of the widely distributed hybrid combinations of classic broilers globally and to trace the dynamics of their changes depending on the age of the parental flock. The study covered a 12-year period - between 2011 to 2023. The share of quality chicks hatched ranged from 76.8% to 91.6%, with average values of 84.1-84.3%, while the share of culled chickens was within the normal range (0.4 to 1.7%). The proportion of culled eggs during candling on the 7th day varied between 4.3% and 14.7%, with average values of 7.64-8.24%. With the increase in the age of the parental flock, there was a stable tendency to increase the share of culled eggs at the first test egg cull, particularly due to the increase of the share of infertile eggs. The age of the parental flock determined more than 38% of the manifestation of the egg fertility trait and about 45% of that of quality chicks. Its influence on total embryonic mortality was significantly weaker (R2= 0.1456). The study of the relationship between the traits “share of quality chicks” and “share of infertile eggs” showed that in the examined dataset, the correlation between them was moderate, negative (r= -0.472±0.100 at P<0.001), with a linear character (L= 0.046±0.062).

Keywords

• Hatching eggs
• Incubation
• Hatchability
• Vital chickens

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