Genetic analysis on body weight at different ages in broiler chicken raised in commercial environment

TY - JOUR

T1 - Genetic analysis on body weight at different ages in broiler chicken raised in commercial environment

AU - Chu, Thinh Tuan

AU - Madsen, Per

AU - Norberg, Elise

AU - Wang, Lei

AU - Marois, Danye

AU - Henshall, John

AU - Jensen, Just

PY - 2020/3/1

Y1 - 2020/3/1

N2 - A multivariate model was developed and used to estimate genetic parameters of body weight (BW) at 1–6 weeks of age of broilers raised in a commercial environment. The development of model was based on the predictive ability of breeding values evaluated from a cross‐validation procedure that relied on half‐sib correlation. The multivariate model accounted for heterogeneous variances between sexes through standardization applied to male and female BWs differently. It was found that the direct additive genetic, permanent environmental maternal and residual variances for BW increased drastically as broilers aged. The drastic increase in variances over weeks of age was mainly due to scaling effects. The ratio of the permanent environmental maternal variance to phenotypic variance decreased gradually with increasing age. Heritability of BW traits ranged from 0.28 to 0.33 at different weeks of age. The direct genetic effects on consecutive weekly BWs had high genetic correlations (0.85–0.99), but the genetic correlations between early and late BWs were low (0.32–0.57). The difference in variance components between sexes increased with increasing age. In conclusion, the permanent environmental maternal effect on broiler chicken BW decreased with increasing age from weeks 1 to 6. Potential bias of the model that considered identical variances for sexes could be reduced when heterogeneous variances between sexes are accounted for in the model.

AB - A multivariate model was developed and used to estimate genetic parameters of body weight (BW) at 1–6 weeks of age of broilers raised in a commercial environment. The development of model was based on the predictive ability of breeding values evaluated from a cross‐validation procedure that relied on half‐sib correlation. The multivariate model accounted for heterogeneous variances between sexes through standardization applied to male and female BWs differently. It was found that the direct additive genetic, permanent environmental maternal and residual variances for BW increased drastically as broilers aged. The drastic increase in variances over weeks of age was mainly due to scaling effects. The ratio of the permanent environmental maternal variance to phenotypic variance decreased gradually with increasing age. Heritability of BW traits ranged from 0.28 to 0.33 at different weeks of age. The direct genetic effects on consecutive weekly BWs had high genetic correlations (0.85–0.99), but the genetic correlations between early and late BWs were low (0.32–0.57). The difference in variance components between sexes increased with increasing age. In conclusion, the permanent environmental maternal effect on broiler chicken BW decreased with increasing age from weeks 1 to 6. Potential bias of the model that considered identical variances for sexes could be reduced when heterogeneous variances between sexes are accounted for in the model.

KW - Broiler chicken

KW - body weight

KW - genetic parameters

KW - maternal effect

KW - sex by genotype interactions

KW - STORAGE

KW - EGG-PRODUCTION TRAITS

KW - PERFORMANCE

KW - PARAMETERS

KW - PROGENY

KW - GROWTH TRAITS

KW - HATCHING EGG

KW - MODELS

KW - maternal effects

KW - broiler chicken

KW - STANDARD

KW - SEXUAL-DIMORPHISM

U2 - 10.1111/jbg.12448

DO - 10.1111/jbg.12448

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 31621116

SN - 1439-0388

VL - 137

SP - 245

EP - 259

JO - Journal of Animal Breeding and Genetics (Online)

JF - Journal of Animal Breeding and Genetics (Online)

IS - 2

ER -