A balanced approach to commercial poultry breeding

Abstract

Balanced selection aims to move all of the relevant traits of a breed in the direction of the preferred response. This approach takes into account performance traits of growth, yield and feed conversion, but also gives weight to fitness traits such as fertility, hatchability and early chick survivability. This chapter reviews a balanced selection approach as applied to poultry breeding. It begins by discussing resource allocation during rearing to help birds meet their genetic potential, and then reviews how selection programmes for the breeding of poultry have evolved over time. Subsequent sections discuss the pedigree lines leading to commercial products (pipeline genetics), the molecular methods used to guide selection and the connection between balanced selection and improvement of animal welfare.