Interactive Impacts of Genotype and Housing System on Egg Weight Loss, Egg Quality, Fertility Rate, Hatching Performance, Chick Quality, and Trait Correlations in Turkish Layer Breeders
Revista Brasileira de Ciencia Avicola / Brazilian Journal of Poultry Science, cilt.28, sa.2, ss.1-15, 2026 (SCI-Expanded, Scopus)
- Yayın Türü: Makale / Tam Makale
- Cilt numarası: 28 Sayı: 2
- Basım Tarihi: 2026
- Doi Numarası: 10.1590/1806-9061-2026-2283
- Dergi Adı: Revista Brasileira de Ciencia Avicola / Brazilian Journal of Poultry Science
- Derginin Tarandığı İndeksler: Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED), Scopus, Directory of Open Access Journals
- Sayfa Sayıları: ss.1-15
- Anahtar Kelimeler: Chick quality, genotype × environment interaction, hatching performance, housing system, layer breeders, translucency score
- Ankara Üniversitesi Adresli: Evet
Özet
This study examined the interactive effects of genotype and housing system on egg weight loss, egg quality, fertility rate, hatchability, embryonic mortality, chick quality, and trait relationships in Turkish layer breeders. Ten Turkish layer breeder genotypes, five brown (RIR1, RIR2, COLOMBIAN, BAR1, and BAR2) and five white (D229, BROWN, BLUE, BLACK, and MAROON), were each housed in both deep litter and enriched cage systems, resulting in a 10 × 2 factorial design. A total of 3,000 hatching eggs (300 eggs per genotype; 1,500 per housing system) were used. The results showed significant genotype × housing system interactions for egg weight at setting, shell weight, shell thickness, fertility rate, hatchability of set and fertile eggs, hatching time, early embryonic mortality, pipped eggs, overall embryonic mortality, chick quality score, and chick length (p<0.05). For instance, fertility rate varied from 41.64% in MAROON breeders housed in enriched cages to 98.18% in the same genotype reared in deep litter. Hatchability of set eggs varied from 30.00% in RIR1 breeders housed in enriched cages to 80.51% in COLOMBIAN breeders housed in deep litter. Similarly, overall embryonic mortality ranged from 5.15% in D229 breeders reared in enriched cages to 38.21% in RIR1 breeders housed in the same system. Independently, genotype exerted significant effects on shell weight, shell thickness, hatching time, and chick length, whereas housing system significantly influenced egg weight, weight loss and width, shell thickness, chick weight, fertility rate, hatchability, and chick length (p<0.001; p<0.05). The correlation analysis indicated a strong positive relationship between egg weight and chick weight (r = 0.772; p<0.001), while hatching time was negatively correlated with chick yield (r = -0.453; p<0.001). In conclusion, genotype-specific responses to the housing environment might be the major determinants of reproductive and hatching performance, as well as chick quality. Additionally, these findings might suggest that optimizing reproductive efficiency requires considering genotype–housing compatibility rather than genotype or housing system alone.