GROWTH-RATE AND FEED-INTAKE OF SELECTED AND NON-SELECTED BROILERS

  • 1 January 1979
    • journal article
    • research article
    • Vol. 43  (2) , 80-90
Abstract
The relative growth rates and feed intake patterns of selected and non-selected broiler populations were investigated in 3 trials. The relative growth rate of the selected populations was approximately twice the relative growth rate of the non-selected population during wk 1, whereas, by wk 4 the rates of the selected and non-selected populations were similar. The percentage deviation between populations in feed intake was higher than the percentage deviation in body weights for wk 1 in all trials. Feed intake strongly influenced the growth rate of selected and non-selected populations, especially from 3 to 8 wk of age. The selected populations had superior feed efficiency from 0 to 4 wk compared to the non-selected population, however, differences between populations from 4 to 8 wk were not significant.