EFFECT OF CROSSING AND SEASONS ON EGG PRODUCTION TRAITS IN TURKEYS | ||||
Egyptian Poultry Science Journal | ||||
Article 9, Volume 34, Issue 1, March 2014, Page 165-185 PDF (790.18 K) | ||||
Document Type: Original Article | ||||
DOI: 10.21608/epsj.2014.5311 | ||||
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Author | ||||
Emad Amin* | ||||
Desert Rese. Center, Ministry of Agric., Egypt | ||||
Abstract | ||||
Crossing between two varieties of turkeys (local Black Baladi (BB) and a commercial White Nicholas (WW) was carried out to estimate heterosis, direct additive and maternal effects for egg production traits, in addition to season effect.The breeding plan permitted the simultaneous production of the two pure varieties (BB and WW) and their reciprocal crosses (WB and BW) throughout two successive years from 2006 to 2007. Crossing and season had significant effect on all egg production traits. Genotypes by season's interactions were significant. The crossbred (BW) had better performance than those of the reciprocal cross (WB) for age at 50 % egg production, EN/hen, egg weight, egg mass and feed conversion during summer, autumn and spring seasons of laying. The superiority of BB as sires suggests that the use of this variety as a terminal sire breed in crossbreeding programs including WW dams would be beneficial for improving the former traits. | ||||
Keywords | ||||
turkeys; Crossing; Heterosis; Additive; maternal; season | ||||
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