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Effect of age at photostimulation on sexual maturation and egg-laying performance of layer breeders
- Source :
- Poultry Science, Poultry Science, Vol 99, Iss 2, Pp 812-819 (2020)
- Publication Year :
- 2020
- Publisher :
- Elsevier, 2020.
-
Abstract
- The objective of this study was to determine the effect of age at photostimulation on sexual maturity and performance of layer breeders. A total of 192 fourteen-wk-old White Leghorn (WL) breeder hens were randomly allocated to 4 treatments of 48 birds each, with 2 replicates per treatment. The birds were photostimulated at 16 (PS16), 18 (PS18), 20 (PS20), and 22 (PS22) wk of age. Four birds per treatment were randomly selected to evaluate sexual organ development at 1 D before photostimulation and 2, 4, and 6 wk after photostimulation. The ovary weight, large yellow follicles number (LYF), oviduct weight, and oviduct length of PS18 increased sharply after photostimulation. Conversely, the increase in PS16 was not observed until 2 wk after photostimulation. There was no difference in age at sexual maturity between treatments (P > 0.05). The PS16 had the longest interval (28 D) from photostimulation to 5% egg production, while PS22 reached 5% egg production 7 D before photostimulation. The PS22 had lower peak production (P = 0.02) and less egg production (P = 0.02) than other treatments. The PS16 had more broken and abnormal eggs (P = 0.01) and lower hatchability (P = 0.04) than other treatments. In conclusion, photostimulation at 16 and 22 wk of age decreases hatchability and egg production, respectively, and photostimulation at 18 wk is appreciated for the WL breeder hens.
- Subjects :
- layer breeder
Ovary
Biology
Management and Production
Egg laying
sexual maturity
Photostimulation
Egg Shell
Random Allocation
Animal science
medicine
Sexual maturity
laying performance
Animals
sexual organ
Sexual Maturation
lcsh:SF1-1100
Reproduction
Age Factors
General Medicine
medicine.anatomical_structure
Fertility
photostimulation age
Oviduct
Animal Science and Zoology
Female
lcsh:Animal culture
Chickens
Photic Stimulation
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 15253171 and 00325791
- Volume :
- 99
- Issue :
- 2
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Poultry Science
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....37663eb489f8e9eff6ebb4a206315c3d