The Alberta Hatching Egg sector has focused on competitiveness and a least cost philosophy in a depressed Alberta economy over the past years. A recent research study done by Mohammad Afrouziyeh, under the supervision of Dr. Martin Zuidhof, at the University of Alberta utilized a precision feeding system and was aimed to mitigate adverse effects of severe feed restriction in broiler breeders, the parents of meat-type chickens, and to decrease the gap between modern broiler breeders and their offspring target body weight.
The project was designed focusing on relaxed growth restriction during prepubertal growth phase and earlier pubertal growth phase. The novel strategy of earlier pubertal growth reduced hunger in broiler breeders during the rearing and laying phases, which could alleviate social concerns around animal welfare. It also allowed pullets to achieve a sufficient foundation and appropriate body fat level, which advanced onset of lay and ultimately, increased chick production.
The results indicated an increase in hatching egg production and egg mass by 0.33 egg/hen/day and 0.916 gram/day, respectively as a result of a 10% increase in prepubertal body weight gain in broiler breeders. Daily feeding station visit frequency decreased for the pullets with increased prepubertal body weight gain by 7 visits per day, indicating a lower degree of hunger in those birds. The effect of maternal growth strategy on progeny performance was also investigated in this research. Overall, the novel maternal growth trajectories increased male broiler offspring growth by 2.2% and increased the efficiency of female broilers by 1.2% in converting feed to meat.
The economic analysis of the research predicted that increasing prepubertal body weight gain by 10% and advancing the pubertal growth phase by 20% compared to the breeder-recommended target growth could increase margin over feed and chick cost for hatching egg producers by $2.17/hen and the broiler chicken supply chain as a whole by $0.083/kg live chicken. This research advanced the current knowledge on optimized management of broiler breeders’ growth to improve reproductive efficiency in chickens and develop new recommendations for broiler breeder pullet growing strategies. This research used a precision feeding system to implement the growth trajectories on broiler breeders. As the meal frequency in the precision feeding system is more than that of in the conventional feeding system, different results might be expected in the conventional system. This research suggests that breeder-recommended BW targets could be revised to result in an improved breeder performance.
