Editor's note: This article is an excerpt from the Aviagen Group's Decades of Breeding for Welfare & Sustainability Report and additional articles will follow. The Report is designed to demonstrate Aviagen's commitment to genetic improvement of welfare and sustainability of broiler and turkey breeds. Plus, it covers much more like techniques to ensure robustness and new methods to improve selection and genetic progress. To read or download the complete report, click here.

Heart and Lung Fitness

Since 1991, the cardiovascular health of pedigree broilers is evaluated using pulse oximetry to measure the level of oxygen saturation in the blood for each broiler.

This is an important indicator of the susceptibility of a broiler to developing ascites and sudden death syndrome.

Measurements from each bird are linked to their family relatedness information to remove the families that are more susceptible to these issues and thus improve the health and welfare of whole populations. Figure 17 shows the decline in levels of ascites over the last 3 decades.

Livability

Livability is an important trait for all producers for both welfare and sustainability of poultry production. The Aviagen breeding programs target improvements in livability through a number of traits.
Livability is recorded at all stages of the production cycle as in pedigree and sibling environments. Livability is also indirectly improved through selection for traits like leg health, carcass defects and cardiovascular function.

We record each incidence of livability and link each case through the pedigree to identify any families that may be predisposed to higher livability.

By including this as a trait within our balanced selections, our populations continue to see improved livability each year (Figure 18). In broilers, the annual livability improvement through genetic selection in our programs is around 0.05 to 0.10 per year.

Conclusion

Animal welfare and sustainability have been a cornerstone of Aviagen's selection processes in broilers and turkeys for decades. Improvements in the genetic potential of pedigree lines will continue to benefit current and future generations of commercial birds in production environments globally.

Through steady and carefully balanced selection for better welfare outcomes alongside productivity and reduced resource use, Aviagen have developed breeding programs that produce highly efficient birds which perform well in a variety of environments and maintain excellent standards of health and welfare. Aviagen is continually looking to enhance rates of improvements in exiting traits and develop novel traits to address industry and stakeholder needs. Research and development is focussed on optimizing the breeding programs and implementing selection tools with the greatest selection accuracy.

Maintaining a broad gene pool and keeping the diversity within and between pedigree populations is also a priority upon which depends the current and future range of poultry breeds. A high-level research and development team comprising personnel with many decades of bird care and handling and solid scientific foundations is at the core of Aviagen's long-term strategy.

Aviagen is highly committed to deliver continuous progress on balanced breeding, enhancing welfare, robustness and efficiency of its birds.
In line with Aviagen's long-term tradition, breeding goals will continue to be refined after careful consideration of market requirements and the feedback coming from customers and society in the wider sense. This will ensure that future needs of any market segment can be met in a responsible and holistic way. For most traits, the variation observed that is due to genetic variation is a small proportion of the overall variation observed. Management factors often have a large bearing on the welfare and production outcomes for a flock.

Therefore, Aviagen provides producers with an extensive range of up-to-date management advice to ensure all birds receive the best management, nutrition and veterinary care that will enhance welfare further and optimise performance.

To read or download the complete report, click here.

References available in the full report.