Abstract
Genetic improvement in commercial broilers worldwide is heavily focused on selection for higher final body weight at a given age. Although commercial broilers are mostly sold by their final body weight, it is important to carefully consider how this weight is attained and at what cost. The cost of feeding broilers, which constitutes about 70% of the total cost of broiler production, varies considerably at different stages of the bird. Careful consideration of the growth curve of broilers and the parameters of the growth curve is critical to optimize profitability of commercial broiler production. The objective of this study was to model the variations of the growth curves of 4 commercial broiler genotypes reared in Ghana using the Gompertz and polynomial growth functions. Data on body weights at 1, 7, 14, 21, 28, 35, and 42 days for 4 unsexed commercial broiler genotypes were used to model both the Gompertz and polynomial growth functions. The 4 genotypes ranked differently for Gompertz predicted early (1-28 days), late growth (28–42 days), and body weight at 42 days. Gompertz function predicted growth better for broiler chicken than the polynomial as the parameters of the Gompertz function are biologically meaningful and heritable. Selection of broiler genotypes for production based on their growth curve (slower early growth and faster late growth) could minimize cost of production and thereby increase the profitability of commercial broiler production in the tropics.
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Acknowledgements
The authors are grateful to the technical staffs of the Animal Research Institute of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR-ARI) for the data collection and management of the experimental flock. We are also grateful to the reviewers for their helpful comments and suggestions.
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Bernard Ato Hagan – conceived the idea for this work; analyzed the data; wrote the manuscript.
Christian Asumah – wrote the manuscript.
Ernest Darkwah Yeboah – wrote the manuscript.
Vida Korkor Lamptey – data collection; wrote the manuscript.
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Hagan, B.A., Asumah, C., Yeboah, E.D. et al. Modeling the growth of four commercial broiler genotypes reared in the tropics. Trop Anim Health Prod 54, 75 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11250-022-03082-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11250-022-03082-1