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Working with customers throughout Italy, Ross Italia, Aviagen's distributor in Italy, recently hosted a seminar that provided the opportunity for influential figures from the Italian poultry industry to share and discuss improved management techniques and market information.
The half day seminar was held at the Hotel Real Fini in Modena, Northern Italy on the 25th November 2003. The speakers, all from Aviagen Ltd in Scotland, were Jim McAdam, Dinah Nicholson, Marcus Kenny and Michael Longley.
Jim McAdam, Genetics Director, updated the participants on progress in the Ross genetic programme, concentrating on aspects of selection for robustness and health. He explained the philosophy of balanced breeding, encompassing broiler and breeder characteristics and the focus in recent years on further processing characteristics, particularly meat yield. He also emphasised the importance of underpinning selection for the economic traits with selection for the support and welfare characteristics such as leg strength and cardiovascular fitness.
In the late 1990's the commercial benefits from focussed selection for reproductive characteristics, particularly egg production, began to be seen, further enhanced in more recent times with the increased focus on improving egg quality and hatchability. Now the emphasis of selection has been redefined to deliver further improvement in broiler growth rate and meat yield and through selecting in multi environments more robust growth and even better FCR progress will begin to come through.
A new Ross product, the 708, is being introduced in the North American market. Specifically designed for the heavy broiler and de-boning market in North America, the Ross 708 provides excellent conformation for roasters from hardy, efficient broilers. Tested extensively in the USA over several years, the product is now being tested selectively in other markets.
Introducing the theme of matching management to the breed for best results, Dinah Nicholson, Aviagen's Regional Technical Manager for Europe explored those areas of hatchery management which can have a direct impact on broiler performance. These include:
- High temperatures late in incubation
- Incubation duration
- Early feeding and development
Research in the United States and Europe has shown that embryo temperatures can reach 40oC or more during the later stages of incubation, which can have a negative impact on hatchability and the growth & performance of the chicks after they hatch.
In the hatchery, high temperatures have been shown to lead to poor hatchability and poor chick quality (leading to more chick culls). In addition, chicks which have been overheated as embryos exhibit immature immune systems and significant differences in the villus to crypt ratio in the intestine and reduced potential for epithelium generation and regeneration. These latter changes have obvious implications for the robustness & performance of the chick in the broiler house.
In recent years, hatch times of the Ross broiler have decreased significantly. Chicks which spend too long in the incubator are more likely to overheat, can be become dehydrated and will also have to wait longer before feeding. Thus, an essential measure for any hatchery is the chick yield at take-off, which is defined as the chick weight expressed as a percentage of initial egg weight, and which should be between 66-68%.
Dr Nicholson also emphasised the importance of prompt feeding during the early stages of life. While embryos obtain nutrients from the egg yolk, the chicks have to obtain nutrients from feed and there is a 48 hour period of transition after hatch, when the chick has to absorb the yolk into both the circulatory system and the gut.
When feed is introduced to the gut it stimulates yolk secretion to the small intestine and triggers an uptake of fat-soluble nutrients, hence yolk utilisation is slower in un-fed chicks.
Early access to feed also has a direct impact on the development of breast meat and through early feeding breast yield can be increased by 4-10% at normal killing ages.
By taking simple steps to improve incubation management, broiler production factors including growth, uniformity and breast yield will be improved. However, good brooding management is still vital for the very best performance.
To emphasise the need for appropriate feeding of the breeder & broiler, Aviagen nutritionist Marcus Kenny covered three areas;
- Feeding breeders into Lay
- Diluted breeder diets
- Feeding breeders for best broiler performance.
He stressed that nutritionists must work co-operatively with all aspects of technical delivery to achieve the two cornerstones of poultry production - correct body weight and good uniformity. Ensuring that the correct growing nutrition is achieved throughout the life of the female broiler breeder will allow full production potential to be reached. If nutritional make-up of the feed is optimised, the bottom-line of all operations can be significantly improved as feed costs represent between 50% and 70% of capital outlay.
Through simple economic analysis of key areas, performance impacts can be shown in the ratio of feed costs to output improvements in bodyweight, FCR, mortality and increased processing performance.
The final speaker was Michael Longley, Aviagen's Technical Service Manager for Italy, who examined the necessity for effective male management. He made the point that broiler breeder males are just as important as the females in reproductive terms, and must be given optimum conditions in the rearing house. It is critical that the correct growth profile and control of uniformity are achieved during the rearing period if levels of fertility during the laying period are to be maximised.
Throughout the production period, males have an increasing requirement for energy which is used for growth, maintenance and sexual activity. The trends in live weight and condition of the males need to be carefully tracked and monitored via sample weighing and the appropriate feed adjustments on a weekly basis so preventing males from becoming over or underweight.
If males become very heavy by 30 weeks and feed levels are then reduced to compensate for this, fertility levels will be compromised soon afterwards. Feed levels should be increased regularly in small steps from mating up and throughout the production period allowing improved body weight control and gradual weight gain.
Throughout the seminar as a whole the central message was the need for appropriate management inputs at all stages to achieve optimal performance and ultimately improvements in profitability.
Valentino Brianza, Managing Director of Ross Italia, drew the seminar to a close by expressing his pleasure with the close working partnership that Ross Italia and Aviagen have with each other, which strongly supports the Ross product in the market. The information presented had been useful, not only in a theoretical but also a practical sense and his wish was that the delegates had been able to relate to many of the issues raised and take away something from the day.
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