Fertilidade e idade de mortalidade embrionária comparando diferentes etapas de produção de matrizes pesadas: inicial, média e final

Abstract

The aim of this study was to analyze the fertility and embryonic mortality of diferente productive ages of broiler breeders. The experiment was conducted in a commercial hatchery located in the city of Marau, Rio Grande do Sul. The experiment was carried out in November 2022, collecting eggs from three different batches of Ross® broiler breeders, specifically breeders at 25, 42, and 63 weeks of age, corresponding to the initial, middle, and final phases of production. A total of 1,118 eggs were used for each treatment, totaling 3,354 eggs evaluated per collection. Four collections were performed in subsequent weeks. The experimental design used was completely randomized with three treatments (three breeder ages) and four repetitions. Ovoscopic examination was performed to determine the fertility of the eggs and embryonic mortality from zero to four days. Embryodiagnosis was performed at the end of the incubation period for all non-hatched eggs. This evaluation was done according to the following criteria: infertile eggs, eggs with embryos that died at the beginning of incubation, between five and tem days of incubation, between 11 and 17 days of incubation, between 18 and 21 days of incubation, crushed eggs during transfer, embryos with incorrect position, open and turned brains, contaminated eggs, and pecked eggs. After this analysis, the percentage of fertile and infertile eggs incubated was calculated in relation to the total number of incubated eggs. The obtained means were subjected to analysis of variance and compared using Tukey's test. It was observed that breeders aged 25 to 50 weeks showed better results in terms of fertility. At these ages, the breeders had 11.51% higher fertility compared to older breeders at the end of their production cycle. Older breeders had lower rates of total egg fertility and fertility in the early days of incubation. The age of the broiler breeders did not show any difference in terms of embryodiagnosis, especially regarding the variables of crushed eggs during transfer, incorrect position, open brains, turned eggs, bacterial contamination, and live pecked eggs.