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Growth Performance Analysis of Two Italian Slow-Growing Chicken Breeds: Bianca di Saluzzo and Bionda Piemontese

SIMPLE SUMMARY: Bianca di Saluzzo and Bionda Piemontese are two Italian slow-growing chicken breeds of the Piemonte region (Northwest Italy) and are reared mainly for meat. They conserve adaptation to free ranging low input rearing systems and are promising for antibiotic-free farming. We aimed to a...

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Autores principales: Soglia, Dominga, Sartore, Stefano, Maione, Sandra, Schiavone, Achille, Dabbou, Sihem, Nery, Joana, Zaniboni, Luisa, Marelli, Stefano, Sacchi, Paola, Rasero, Roberto
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7341298/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32503231
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ani10060969
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author Soglia, Dominga
Sartore, Stefano
Maione, Sandra
Schiavone, Achille
Dabbou, Sihem
Nery, Joana
Zaniboni, Luisa
Marelli, Stefano
Sacchi, Paola
Rasero, Roberto
author_facet Soglia, Dominga
Sartore, Stefano
Maione, Sandra
Schiavone, Achille
Dabbou, Sihem
Nery, Joana
Zaniboni, Luisa
Marelli, Stefano
Sacchi, Paola
Rasero, Roberto
author_sort Soglia, Dominga
collection PubMed
description SIMPLE SUMMARY: Bianca di Saluzzo and Bionda Piemontese are two Italian slow-growing chicken breeds of the Piemonte region (Northwest Italy) and are reared mainly for meat. They conserve adaptation to free ranging low input rearing systems and are promising for antibiotic-free farming. We aimed to analyze their growth using a mathematical model and to obtain some advice for improving performance. Polymorphism of the PAX7 gene was also studied to increase conservation value. The results confirmed that these breeds are late-maturing. Whereas selection would increase inbreeding, a mating scheme to bring inbreeding under control could be the most proper way to increase growth rate and reach commercial maturity earlier. ABSTRACT: Bianca di Saluzzo (BS) and Bionda Piemontese (BP) are two Italian chicken breeds, mainly reared for meat production, primarily in antibiotic-free farming. However, technical information on their growth pattern is still missing. At hatching, 150 unsexed chicks of each breed were weighed, labeled, and reared in indoor pens up to 8 w of age. At 8 w of age, the chicks were separated by sex and randomly transferred to growing pens with access to an external paddock (15 birds/pen; 4 pens/sex for each breed). The body weight (BW) was recorded biweekly for each bird, from hatching to 32 w of age. In order to identify an improvement strategy, the objectives of our study were to analyze the growth pattern of these birds using the Gompertz mathematical model and compare results with other chicken breeds. Polymorphism of the PAX7 gene was also analyzed to test its association with growth traits. Both BS and BP are close to unselected native breeds and, among the Italian local poultry, they are confirmed to be slow-growing birds with an intermediate size between heavy and light chicken breeds. Regarding the PAX7 gene, two alleles were found, F and G, and showed an association with the actual BW in the BP females from 14 w of age onwards. The G allele always exhibited a more favorable effect than the F allele. In small size poultry population, a delicate balance between preservation of biodiversity and performance improvement should be considered. Consequently, the most proper way could be an approach based on a mating scheme to keep inbreeding under control, increase growth rate, and improve commercial maturity.
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spelling pubmed-73412982020-07-14 Growth Performance Analysis of Two Italian Slow-Growing Chicken Breeds: Bianca di Saluzzo and Bionda Piemontese Soglia, Dominga Sartore, Stefano Maione, Sandra Schiavone, Achille Dabbou, Sihem Nery, Joana Zaniboni, Luisa Marelli, Stefano Sacchi, Paola Rasero, Roberto Animals (Basel) Article SIMPLE SUMMARY: Bianca di Saluzzo and Bionda Piemontese are two Italian slow-growing chicken breeds of the Piemonte region (Northwest Italy) and are reared mainly for meat. They conserve adaptation to free ranging low input rearing systems and are promising for antibiotic-free farming. We aimed to analyze their growth using a mathematical model and to obtain some advice for improving performance. Polymorphism of the PAX7 gene was also studied to increase conservation value. The results confirmed that these breeds are late-maturing. Whereas selection would increase inbreeding, a mating scheme to bring inbreeding under control could be the most proper way to increase growth rate and reach commercial maturity earlier. ABSTRACT: Bianca di Saluzzo (BS) and Bionda Piemontese (BP) are two Italian chicken breeds, mainly reared for meat production, primarily in antibiotic-free farming. However, technical information on their growth pattern is still missing. At hatching, 150 unsexed chicks of each breed were weighed, labeled, and reared in indoor pens up to 8 w of age. At 8 w of age, the chicks were separated by sex and randomly transferred to growing pens with access to an external paddock (15 birds/pen; 4 pens/sex for each breed). The body weight (BW) was recorded biweekly for each bird, from hatching to 32 w of age. In order to identify an improvement strategy, the objectives of our study were to analyze the growth pattern of these birds using the Gompertz mathematical model and compare results with other chicken breeds. Polymorphism of the PAX7 gene was also analyzed to test its association with growth traits. Both BS and BP are close to unselected native breeds and, among the Italian local poultry, they are confirmed to be slow-growing birds with an intermediate size between heavy and light chicken breeds. Regarding the PAX7 gene, two alleles were found, F and G, and showed an association with the actual BW in the BP females from 14 w of age onwards. The G allele always exhibited a more favorable effect than the F allele. In small size poultry population, a delicate balance between preservation of biodiversity and performance improvement should be considered. Consequently, the most proper way could be an approach based on a mating scheme to keep inbreeding under control, increase growth rate, and improve commercial maturity. MDPI 2020-06-03 /pmc/articles/PMC7341298/ /pubmed/32503231 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ani10060969 Text en © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Soglia, Dominga
Sartore, Stefano
Maione, Sandra
Schiavone, Achille
Dabbou, Sihem
Nery, Joana
Zaniboni, Luisa
Marelli, Stefano
Sacchi, Paola
Rasero, Roberto
Growth Performance Analysis of Two Italian Slow-Growing Chicken Breeds: Bianca di Saluzzo and Bionda Piemontese
title Growth Performance Analysis of Two Italian Slow-Growing Chicken Breeds: Bianca di Saluzzo and Bionda Piemontese
title_full Growth Performance Analysis of Two Italian Slow-Growing Chicken Breeds: Bianca di Saluzzo and Bionda Piemontese
title_fullStr Growth Performance Analysis of Two Italian Slow-Growing Chicken Breeds: Bianca di Saluzzo and Bionda Piemontese
title_full_unstemmed Growth Performance Analysis of Two Italian Slow-Growing Chicken Breeds: Bianca di Saluzzo and Bionda Piemontese
title_short Growth Performance Analysis of Two Italian Slow-Growing Chicken Breeds: Bianca di Saluzzo and Bionda Piemontese
title_sort growth performance analysis of two italian slow-growing chicken breeds: bianca di saluzzo and bionda piemontese
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7341298/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32503231
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ani10060969
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