Effect of Induced Molting on Production Performance, Egg Quality, Hatching Traits and Juvenile Performance of Sasso Broiler Breeders

Atoo Foreman, Nideou Dassidi, N’nanlé Oumbortime, Okanlawon Onagbessan and Kokou Tona

Background and Objective: Moulting of older breeders is a procedure to obtain or to increase reproductive performance of breeders by restoration of egg quality. A 15-week study was carried out to examine the effect of induced molting of Sasso broiler breeders by feed withdrawal for a period of 9 days on the production performance, egg quality, hatching traits and 1-week post-hatch chick performance. Materials and Methods: A total of 240 Sasso broiler breeders (72 weeks old) were randomly allotted to two treatment groups (non-molt and molt) of 120 hens each. Each group was further divided into six replicates with 20 hens per replicate and 2 cocks each. The hens in the molt treatment group were subjected to molting by feed withdrawal for a period of 9 days. After the commencement of egg production, eggs were collected from the two experimental groups and incubated (from the 7th week after molting). Collection and incubation were repeated 5 times. The chicks hatched from these incubations were reared for 1-week. Results: The eggs from the molted hens had a higher albumen height and haugh unit. The eggs from the molted hens had an improvement in fertility while the hatchability of the fertile eggs was not different in the 2 groups. The incubation duration, chick weight and quality at hatch showed no difference between the treatments. At the end of the 7 days post-hatch, there was no difference in chick performance. Conclusion: It was concluded that although induced molting procedure with feed withdrawal improved the production, quality and fertility of eggs of Sasso broiler breeders, it did not influence chick quality and 1-week performance.

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