Genetic analysis on body weight at different ages in broiler chicken raised in commercial environment.

A multivariate model was developed and used to estimate genetic parameters of body weight (BW) at 1-6 weeks of age of broilers raised in a commercial environment. The development of model was based on the predictive ability of breeding values evaluated from a cross-validation procedure that relied on half-sib correlation. The multivariate model accounted for heterogeneous variances between sexes through standardization applied to male and female BWs differently.

Benefits of testing in both bio-secure and production environments in genomic selection breeding programs for commercial broiler chicken.

Background: A breeding program for commercial broiler chicken that is carried out under strict biosecure conditions can show reduced genetic gain due to genotype by environment interactions (G × E) between bio-secure (B) and commercial production (C) environments. Accuracy of phenotype-based best linear unbiased prediction of breeding values of selection candidates using sib-testing in C is low. Genomic prediction based on dense genetic markers may improve accuracy of selection.