Anderson A C Alves, Arthur F A Fernandes, Fernando Brito Lopes, Vivian Breen, Rachel Hawken, Guilherme J M Rosa
This study aimed to estimate genetic parameters for feeding behavior (FB) traits and to assess their genetic relationship with performance traits in group-housed broilers. In total, 99,472,151 visits were recorded for 95,711 birds between 2017 and 2022 using electronic feeders. The visits were first clustered into 2,667,617 daily observations for ten FB traits: daily feed intake (DFI), daily number of visits (NVIS), time spent at the feeders (TSF), number of visited feeders (NVF), visiting activity interval (VAI), feeding rate (FR), daily number of meals (NMEAL), average intake per meal (INTMEAL), number of visits per meal (VISMEAL) and interval between meals (MEALIVL)...
April 5, 2024: Poultry Science