The evaluation of laying performance, egg quality, fertility, hatchability, and chick quality of SA51A and SA31L broiler breeders in Ghana

This research evaluated the laying performance, egg quality, fertility, hatchability, and chick quality of SA51A and SA31L broiler breeders in Ghana. A total of 2500 breeders from each strain were examined from 20 to 60 weeks of age. Each strain was randomly replicated five times with 500 birds in each replicate. Each strain was crossed with Sasso Rainbow X with the male-to female ratio of 1:10. The experimental birds were kept in 10 open-sided deep litter pens. The experimental design used was completely randomized design. The parameters measured were; feed intake, feed conversion ratio, hen-day egg production, hen-housed egg production, egg weight, egg mass, laying mortality, egg quality, fertility, hatchability, saleable chicks, and chick quality. Eggs were collected twice daily for 10 months. One hundred (100) eggs from each strain were sent to the Department of Animal Science, KNUST for internal and external egg quality analysis. A total of 900 fertile eggs were sampled for setting, 450 from each strain. Before setting for incubation, eggs were weighed, labeled, and assigned into 5 replications of 90 eggs per strain. After 18 days of incubation, eggs were candled for live embryos. After the hatch was pulled, the chicks were visually observed. Chicks that were clean with dried feathers, bright and clear eyes, sealed navels, and without deformities were grouped as saleable chicks and those without these qualities were grouped as non-saleable chicks. Individual chick weights of samples from each strain were measured using Pro Scout electronic balance. Chick length and shank length were measured using a 30 cm ruler. The results show that under the conditions of this experiment; the performance of SA51A was not significantly different (p>0.05) from SA31L in terms of the number of eggs laid, hen-day egg production, hen-house egg production and internal egg qualities measured. However, SA51A strain had a higher performance than the SA31L strain (p<0.05) in terms of egg weight, fertility, hatchability, chick weights and saleable chicks. The onset of egg production was 20 weeks for both strains, the egg production peaked above 80% from week 28 for both strains up to week 48 before it began to decline. SA51A recorded the highest egg production at week 30 while SA31L had its highest at week 31. We concluded that SA31L and SA51A females crossed with Sasso Rainbow X males can be used as broiler breeders for chicken meat production to increase productivity and economic returns.