Y3FJXC25

2637

15 janvier 2021 10:05

15 janvier 2021 10:05

In on-farm hatching systems, eggs are transported at day 18 of incubation to the broiler farm, where chickens have immediately access to feed and water after hatching. In hatchery-fed systems, newly hatched chickens have immediately access to feed and water in the hatchery and are transported to the farm thereafter. Conventionally hatched chickens can remain without access to feed and water up to 72 h after hatching until placement on the farm. The current study compared day-old chicken quality, performance and slaughter yield of broiler chickens that were on-farm hatched (OH), hatchery-fed (HF) or conventionally hatchery-hatched (HH). The experiment was performed in 6 rooms in one house. Each room contained 2 duplicate pens with approximately 1,155 chickens per pen; 2 rooms with each 2 duplicate pens were assigned to one treatment. The experiment was repeated during 3 consecutive production cycles. Chickens originated from young parent stock flocks. Results showed that HF and OH chickens were heavier and longer than HH chickens at day (D) 1. Relative weight of stomach and intestines were highest for OH chickens. OH chickens had worse day-old chicken quality in terms of navel condition and red hocks than HH and HF chickens. Treatments did not differ in first week and total mortality. From D0 until slaughter age, body weight was highest for OH, followed by HF and HH. Furthermore, carcass weight at slaughter age (D40) was highest for OH chickens, followed by HF and HH chickens. Breast fillets showed a higher incidence of white striping and wooden breast in HF and OH chickens compared to HH chickens. In conclusion, the current study showed that both OH and HF chickens of young parent flocks had better growth performance, which could explain the higher prevalence of breast myopathies, compared to HH. The worse day-old chicken quality for OH compared to HH and HF does not seem to affect first week mortality and later life performance.

None

• AB - Utile à l'AB
• FREDO mode élevage, bien-être et qualité
• FREDO santé animale
• GEO Belgique
• GEO Pays-Bas
• volaille
• élevage

• breast myopathies
• broiler
• early nutrition
• on-farm hatching
• performance

Poultry Science

December 23, 2020

23 décembre 2020

10.1016/j.psj.2020.12.050 Le DOI est une URL unique de référencement d'une publication. Il est donc plus fiable et permanent qu'une URL classique

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