New insights into the associations among feed efficiency, metabolizable efficiency traits and related QTL regions in broiler chickens

Background:Improving the feed efficiency would increase profitability for producers while also reducing the environmental footprint of livestock production. This study was conducted to investigate the relationships among feed efficiency traits and metabolizable efficiency traits in 180 male broilers...

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Published in:畜牧与生物技术杂志（英文版） 2020, Vol.11 (4), p.950-964
Main Authors: Wei Li, Ranran Liu, Maiqing Zheng, Furong Feng, Dawei Liu, Yuming Guo, Guiping Zhao, Jie Wen
Format: Article
Language:English
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Summary:Background:Improving the feed efficiency would increase profitability for producers while also reducing the environmental footprint of livestock production. This study was conducted to investigate the relationships among feed efficiency traits and metabolizable efficiency traits in 180 male broilers. Significant loci and genes affecting the metabolizable efficiency traits were explored with an imputation-based genome-wide association study. The traits measured or calculated comprised three growth traits, five feed efficiency related traits, and nine metabolizable efficiency traits. Results:The residual feed intake (RFI) showed moderate to high and positive phenotypic correlations with eight other traits measured, including average daily feed intake (ADFI), dry excreta weight (DEW), gross energy excretion (GEE), crude protein excretion (CPE), metabolizable dry matter (MDM), nitrogen corrected apparent metabolizable energy (AMEn), abdominal fat weight (AbF), and percentage of abdominal fat (AbP). Greater correlations were observed between growth traits and the feed conversion ratio (FCR) than RFI. In addition, the RFI, FCR, ADFI, DEW, GEE, CPE, MDM, AMEn, AbF, and AbP were lower in low-RFI birds than high-RFI birds (P
ISSN:1674-9782