Body weight and/or fatness as potential determinants of the onset of egg production in broiler breeder hens

In four trials during consecutive years individually-caged birds were weighed at first egg, and in the first two trials they were then killed to determine abdominal and skin fat, in order to establish whether there is a minimal body weight and/or body fat pool required for the start of egg production in broiler breeder hens. There were negative correlations ranging from significant to negligible between body weight and age at first egg. For birds of the same strain on a conventional food restriction regimen, the average weight range at first egg in the four trials was 3.3 to 3.7 kg, which may be a strain characteristic. In spite of severe food restriction, all birds were very fat at first egg. The correlations between fat concentration and age at first egg were negative. In mature pullets a minimum concentration of stored, easily mobilised fat may be essential for yolk formation and ovulation.

The amino acid and energy requirements of broiler breeder hens

Three trials, involving 1000 broiler breeder hens each, were conducted under rather uniform conditions in order to test the applicability of two models for calculating the amino acid requirements of broiler breeders, and to evaluate their energy requirements. The birds fed diets based on Model A (which assumes that all of the egg white and shell membrane proteins are synthesized during albumen formation and secretion at the expense of tissue proteins) produced at a rate greater than the planned target, whereas Model B (which assumes that only ovoglycoproteins and shell membranes are thus produced) supported a production close to the anticipated performance. This indicates the validity of Model B, developed for egg layers, to predict the requirements of the most limiting amino also for broiler breeder hens. The resulting practical diets contained considerably lower protein levels than customary. According to Model B, minimal amino acid requirements for broiler breeder hens producing a daily egg mass of 52.7 g. having a body weight of 3.5 kg and gaining weight at a rate of 4 g/day, calculated to be as follows (g/hen/day): methionine, .57; sulfur amino acids, .83; lysine, .76; arginine, 1.11; threonine, .72; valine, .92; isoleucine, .85; leucine, 1.25; tryptophane, .19; histidine,

New formal approaches to the determination of energy and amino acid requirements of chicks

Body weight and the intake of metabolizable energy of chicks as function of age, were resolved into a linear equation from which the energy requirements for maintenance and growth were extracted. The metabolizable energy requirement for maintenance was calculated to be 1.91 and 1.62 Cal./g. 2/3, and that for weight gain was 2.05 and 2.19 Cal./g. for male White Rock and female 2--8-week old Leghorn chicks, respectively. The amino acid requirements of growing broiler chicks were calculated from the maintenance requirements, body weight gain and body weight, the proportions of feather protein in total body protein, and the amino acid composition of carcass and feathers. The requirements thus calculated, correlated well with various values in the literature. Diets formulated on the basis of the present model, were lower in protein and amino acid contents than those formulated on the basis of NRC allowances. These differences were pronounced in diets designed for 6--8 week old chicks. The weight gains obtained were similar for both types of diets. Feed conversion were slightly poorer and abdominal fat higher in chicks fed the model diets. It is concluded that the present model can serve, at least as an initial approach, to calculate the protein and amino acid requirements.