Genetic variances, heritabilities and maternal effects on body weight, breast meat yield, meat quality traits and the shape of the growth curve in turkey birds.
BACKGROUND
Turkey is an important agricultural species and is largely used as a meat bird. In 2004, turkey represented 6.5% of the world poultry meat production. The world-wide turkey population has rapidly grown due to increased commercial farming. Due to the high demand for turkey meat from both consumers and industry global turkey stocks increased from 100 million in 1970 to over 276 million in 2004. This rapidly increasing importance of turkeys was a reason to design this study for the estimation of genetic parameters that control body weight, body composition, meat quality traits and parameters that shape the growth curve in turkey birds.


RESULTS
The average heritability estimate for body weight traits was 0.38, except for early weights that were strongly affected by maternal effects. This study showed that body weight traits, upper asymptote (a growth curve trait), percent breast meat and redness of meat had high heritability whereas heritabilities of breast length, breast width, percent drip loss, ultimate pH, lightness and yellowness of meat were medium to low. We found high positive genetic and phenotypic correlations between body weight, upper asymptote, most breast meat yield traits and percent drip loss but percent drip loss was found strongly negatively correlated with ultimate pH. Percent breast meat, however, showed genetic correlations close to zero with body weight traits and upper asymptote.


CONCLUSIONS
The results of this analysis and the growth curve from the studied population of turkey birds suggest that the turkey birds could be selected for breeding between 60 and 80 days of age in order to improve overall production and the production of desirable cuts of meat. The continuous selection of birds within this age range could promote high growth rates but specific attention to meat quality would be needed to avoid a negative impact on the quality of meat.
Animal Breeding and Genomics Centre, Wageningen University, 6709PG, Wageningen, the Netherlands. muhammadl.aslam@wur.nl
Muhammad L
ML
Aslam
John Wm
JW
Bastiaansen
Richard Pma
RP
Crooijmans
Bart J
BJ
Ducro
Addie
A
Vereijken
Martien Am
MA
Groenen
D000818:Animals; D001823:Body Composition / Q000235:genetics*; D001835:Body Weight / Q000235:genetics*; D014644:Genetic Variation; D011200:Poultry; D014422:Turkeys / Q000235:genetics / Q000254:growth & development
Poult Sci. 1991 Apr;70(4):709-18
1876547
Poult Sci. 2002 Dec;81(12):1782-8
12512566
Poult Sci. 2003 Mar;82(3):347-56
12705392
J Anim Sci. 1976 Apr;42(4):1036-51
770411
Poult Sci. 2001 Jul;80(7):839-43
11469642
J Hered. 1985 Nov-Dec;76(6):459-62
4086789
Poult Sci. 1990 Oct;69(10):1634-43
2263538
J Anim Breed Genet. 1993 Jan 12;110(1-6):423-8
21395741
Br Poult Sci. 1998 Jul;39(3):346-53
9693814
Poult Sci. 1997 Jul;76(7):1042-6
9200242
Br Poult Sci. 1997 Sep;38(4):355-8
9347142
Br Poult Sci. 2006 Dec;47(6):685-93
17190675
Poult Sci. 2004 Apr;83(4):521-5
15109049
Poult Sci. 2001 Jul;80(7):833-8
11469641
BMC Genet. 2008 Aug 18;9:53
18706119
Poult Sci. 2008 Oct;87(10):1971-9
18809858
Poult Sci. 2000 Apr;79(4):445-52
10780636
Meat Sci. 1998 Aug;49(4):447-57
22060626
Poult Sci. 1967 Nov;46(6):1374-84
6081731
J Anim Breed Genet. 2008 Jun;125(3):168-75
18479267
J Anim Sci. 2000 Oct;78(10):2515-24
11048915
Genetics. 2008 Jul;179(3):1591-9
18622035
Genet Sel Evol. 2003 Nov-Dec;35(6):623-35
14604511