Be taught extra about Aviagen Group’s multi-environment technique and leg well being assessments
18 September 2024
5 minute learn
Editor’s be aware: This text is an excerpt from the Aviagen Group’s Many years of Breeding for Welfare & Sustainability Report and extra articles will comply with. The Report is designed to display Aviagen’s dedication to genetic enchancment of welfare and sustainability of broiler and turkey breeds. Plus, it covers way more like methods to make sure robustness and new strategies to enhance choice and genetic progress. To learn or obtain the entire report, click on right here.
Robustness
A key part of excellent welfare is the flexibility of birds to thrive in a wide range of manufacturing environments. Aviagen’s pedigree services replicate typical farming atmosphere, administration and vitamin situations and these have been frequently refined through the years to maintain them related to industrial follow.
For example, in 2013, Aviagen Turkeys launched a better density brooding regime to replicate business follow, which altered the expression of traits equivalent to leg defects.
As pedigree birds contribute to future generations, the pedigree services are maintained to the best biosecurity requirements. Because of this pedigree birds don’t meet the spectrum of pure well being challenges present in industrial poultry manufacturing.
To measure the potential of birds when grown below pure well being challenges, Aviagen makes use of a parallel farming system the place siblings of pedigree birds are grown and assessed in decrease hygiene situations.
Pedigree alternatives are then based mostly on efficiency measurements from each areas (multi-environment choice), guaranteeing that solely the households that carry out effectively in each sorts of environments cross their genes on to the following technology.
This course of began in broilers in 2000 and turkeys in 2010. Over time, this means of ‘multi-environment choice’ has had a dramatic impact on the robustness to numerous administration, immune and intestine challenges.
This multi-environment technique has made present generations of birds higher in a position to adapt to the broader vary of administration circumstances they could encounter within the discipline. This testing of siblings has led to extra sturdy animal populations with larger livability and higher uniformity and continues in the present day.
Leg Well being
Leg Well being has been a key function in Aviagen’s breeding packages for the reason that 1970’s.
This started with the elimination of birds with any medical leg defects (broilers) and strolling evaluation and defect choice in turkeys (see Figures 8 and 9).
Together with leg defects every chook can also be screened for footpad dermatitis (FPD), hock lesions and toe defects. Any birds displaying any kind of leg defects are usually not thought of for choice (to contribute to the following technology). This coverage continues to at the present time in each broiler and turkey packages and has been a driving think about lowering the genes related to leg defects inside our populations (Determine 10) as demonstrated by Kapell et al., 2012 (broilers) and Kapell et al., 2017 (turkeys). The addition of family-based choice has additionally made it attainable to exclude defect-free people from high-defect households.
The turkey breeding program has a protracted historical past of choice for gait. Additionally within the hen breeding program enhancements in gait rating are clear (Determine 11). Ross 308 broilers confirmed a gradual gait enchancment from 2016 to 2022.
The scope of leg well being evaluation has been expanded through the years to incorporate know-how such because the pioneering use of a hand-held x-ray system (Lixiscope) for the detection of medical and sub-clinical tibial dyschondroplasia (TD) (Determine 12). This work started initially in broilers in 1989; new technology Lixiscopes in 2007-8 improved the extent of detection and likewise made it probably to use this know-how to turkeys the place, alongside gait and defect evaluation, it continues for use in the present day.
Collectively, inclusion of a variety of leg well being traits within the breeding objective has improved leg well being within the discipline as effectively, because the development from Agriculture and Agri-Meals Canada from the Authorities of Canada reveals (Determine 13).
Enchancment in leg well being has been achieved alongside liveweight features. That is an instance of the a long time’ lengthy utility of balanced breeding the place adversely correlated traits could be improved concurrently (Determine 14).
Developments in medical imaging applied sciences current new alternatives inside poultry breeding. In the present day, in each broiler and turkey breeding packages, computed tomography (CT) is used to measure a variety of traits (Determine 15). As effectively as recording correct measurements of breast and leg yield, algorithms have been developed to mechanically detect sub-clinical incidence of TD inside the birds.
CT imaging additionally permits the recording of a wide range of novel skeletal and morphological options that would make it attainable to find out the best structure for good gait and steadiness.
FPD is a typical welfare indicator. Genetic choice to enhance FPD started in 2008 in broilers and turkeys, by scoring footpads on each pedigree particular person and choosing people exhibiting a low genetic predisposition to develop FPD. FPD scoring takes place within the pedigree atmosphere and on siblings within the decrease hygiene atmosphere, to make sure robustness below discipline situations. Moist litter is a key contributor to the incidence of FPD (Mayne et al., 2007). From 2011, beginning with turkeys, Aviagen applied particular person water consumption measurements utilizing know-how much like its feed stations to determine birds with extreme water consumption which have been proven to contribute considerably to litter moisture. The mix of focused exclusion of people creating moist litter in addition to these with a decrease tendency to develop FPD is an efficient genetic technique of enhancing footpad well being of the longer term inhabitants.
Determine 16 reveals the development of FPD enchancment within the pedigree program for turkeys. The measurement of FPD was improved in 2018 by including footpad form which may be very extremely correlated to FPD however with round twice the heritability permitting higher ranges of progress to be achieved.
