Profile of the Layer of 2010 Al Kulenkamp Ph.D Shaver Poultry Breeding Farms Ltd., Cambridge, Ontario

Abstract

The lag time between the work of the primary breeder and the commercial egg layer flocks is 4 - 5 years. Thus achievements already in the pipeline will exhibit themselves up to the year 2008 therefore requiring only a little ìguesstimatingî for a prediction to 2010.

ìControlled evolutionî by breeders has been taking place for over a century. Considerable progress in productive characteristics has been achieved in concert with changes in non-genetic technology i.e. management, nutrition and health. Hens are laying 50 or more eggs and using 25% less feed to do it than their ancestors of just 30 years ago.

Changes in the laying hen are influenced by a number of factors. Breeders stay attuned to the needs and demands of the commercial egg producer and the consumer. The producer is concerned primarily with the efficiency of egg production and has in the past been the most influential in shaping breederís goals. More recently the consumer is voicing strong opinions with regard to how eggs are produced. Welfare and environmental concerns are becoming more and more important. New welfare codes have or will soon be implemented which will alter the cage environment under which layers will be kept. At a minimum more space will be allotted per bird in conventional cages while in other instances ìenhanced modifiedî cages with perches, nest boxes and dust baths will be required. Some countries have banned cages altogether. Breeders are adopting new technology to address these new directions however, the ìclassicalî criteria of number of eggs per hen housed, feed efficiency and egg quality will continue to be a large part of their programs.

The Layer in 2010 will be substantially improved but not dramatically different. She will be capable of laying 12-15 more eggs of better quality per hen housed and consume up to 8 grams less feed per egg. With improved breeding techniques the 2010 layer will be better able to cope with group type environments, less prone to cannibalism and many flocks will be maintained with no beak trimming. There will be a growing portion of flocks dedicated to producing ìhealthyî eggs with increased levels of Omega-3 fatty acids.

Profile of the Layer of 2010

Al Kulenkamp
Shaver Poultry Breeding Farms Ltd., Cambridge, Ontario

Introduction

Two thousand and ten seems like a long way off but from a breeding standpoint itís just around the corner. The structure of the layer industry dictates that thereís a lag time of 4-5 years between the work done at the primary breeding level and the influence on a laying cycle of commercial flocks. There are the pure line and grandparent generations at the primary breeder level, a parent stock generation and then the commercial egg layer. Thus the work done today at the pure line level will be present in commercial layers in 2006 - 2008. Therefore to predict the ìprofileî of the layer of 2010 will take only a small amount of use of the ìcrystal ballî while much beyond that it would be more of a soothsaying exercise.

Genetic change by poultry breeders is what I call ìcontrolled evolutionî. That is, making use of a natural mechanism allowing biological organisms to change in response to the environment in which they live. For laying chickens, directed change has been going on for over a century. Early efforts were limited to esthetic traits i.e. plumage color or comb type. Later as technology advanced, great strides have been made in productive traits. Just in the past 30 years egg number per hen has increased by more than 50 eggs and utilizing 25% less feed per egg!

A number of factors come into play, which affect the goals of breeders with respect to the type of birds that they will make available to the industry. Market needs are evolving constantly as the consumer and producer demands become more diverse. The main concern for the producer is the economic return per unit of space. For the consumer, a highly nutritious food product at low cost has been the main criterion. In recent times, additional attention by the consumer to issues of food safety, environmental protection and animal welfare are of increasing importance. This became evident first in Europe several years ago but has made its way to North America within the last 2-3 years.

Influential factors that will affect the laying chicken of the future.

From the producer perspective

In the past, producers have traditionally been the key force in determining what the requirements of laying chickens were to be. Nature had already provided a consumable food product (the egg) which, as we all know, is one of the best sources of human nutrition available. Efforts by the egg breeding and producing industry were aimed at producing this food product as efficiently as possible. A number of specific aspects of egg production were targeted over time. Initially, once the trap nest was invented and egg number per hen could be measured, increasing this parameter was the goal. There has been an amazing response to this effort, in concert with changes in non- genetic influences i.e. management, nutrition and health. From the ìwildî state where perhaps 10 - 20 eggs per hen would be produced in a year we now see a 20 -30 fold increase in this trait.

As technology advanced, more and more components of efficiency have been added to the equation. Feed efficiency and egg quality, particularly the shell quality later in the life of the chicken are very important to the economics of egg production. These are broad entities within themselves, being addressed in breeding programs in somewhat different ways. In the future these will still be of primary importance to the producer. Total egg number per hen housed in a typical laying period is still the number one criterion for the egg producer with the efficiency of converting feed to egg as second. In addition to these ìclassicalî traits, the livability and behavioral traits have become of prime interest. This is particularly so where the birds are kept under stressful conditions i.e. high density within cages, high temperature of the tropics or where disease challenge is high and feedstuffs are of poor quality. These later conditions fortunately do not exist to any great extent in Canada however, many other parts of the world are not so fortunate. Additional egg quality traits for the breaker industry are becoming defined and dry mater yield is probably the most important.

Consumer interests are changing.

Where once the consumer was happy just to be able to obtain a very good food item at a low cost, nowadays thereís much more to it than that. Consumer demands in the past were concerned primarily with the size, shell color and quality of the egg with different values placed on these in different parts of the world. Now, in some of the more affluent countries, how the eggs are produced is becoming a very strong issue. The animal welfare movement is being effective whereby codes of practice are or have been developed with recommendations of varying degrees on such things as cage space per bird, cage type and even a ban on cage housing of chickens altogether. Moulting practices using feed withdrawal as the method are also under scrutiny. Beak trimming, used to control picking and cannibalism will also be reduced or eliminated.

Canada as a whole will likely not be affected to the extent that some other countries will, as the industry already has a good degree of compliance to many of the welfare concerns. An example is the cage space recommendation in the revised code of practice. The old recommendation was 64sq. inches while the revised recommendation will be 67 sq. inches. Implementation of the new code in Canada is proposed such that existing units and those built prior to the adoption of the code would be ìgrandfatheredî with the new allowance granted when housing is re-equipped. This allows for a much longer time frame over which the Canadian layer industry has to make full adjustment than that proposed by the U.S.

As long as Supply Management continues in Canada, changes in space allocation will not affect national hatch numbers or flock size. Determination of these will still be based on market demand for eggs.(Hunton August 02) This differs from the U.S. where it is postulated that the changes will affect flock size and therefore because of supply and demand the price will increase. As an extreme case, where there would be 100% compliance and no expansion of housing, the national layer flock in 2008 would be reduced to less than 74% of that in 2002 with a predicted rise in prices from$0.71 per doz. to $1.147 per doz. (Bell July 2002). In Canada there would be a small increase in cost of production (8-10%) which would eventually be incorporated in the price.(Hunton August 02).

Breeding Technology

The current and future needs of the consumer and producer shape the breeding goals for the layer of the future. These are constantly evolving. The tools, which the breeder has to effect these changes, are also an important part of the whole process. As the goals become more diverse, so do the breeding programs of the primary breeder. Selection for the classical criteria of number of eggs per hen housed per year, efficiency of converting food into eggs and external and internal egg quality will continue. However, more emphasis on livability and behavioral traits will be applied.

Traditional breeding methods for increasing the egg number per hen incorporated selection for earlier sexual maturity and higher peak production. Limits to these two traits are fast approaching with some flocks reporting 98% peaks. Earlier sexual maturity, especially for the Canadian market using supply management is not desirable. Also for other markets it is not too desirable because of difficulty in growing a proper pullet for the high egg output sheís designed to produce. Therefore breeding companies are focusing on persistency of lay, extending records to 80wk or longer.

Feed utilization is divided into body maintenance and production requirements. Residual feed consumption calculated as what is to be consumed over and above the requirement for maintenance and production, is where breeders are placing their efforts. It is important to maintain an optimum balance between feed efficiency and feed consumption, allowing ìsafety marginsî for adequate nutrition under conditions of stress.

Egg quality tends to decline with age of the bird. The major objective of breeding programs is to improve egg quality during the later stages of lay. As egg production recording is extended so is the measurement of egg quality, allowing for the most rapid progress that can be achieved. Egg weight is a quality criterion that varies with different markets. Depending on the grading system the optimum egg weight will vary from less than 60g to more than 65g. Work toward reaching the optimum weight as quickly as possible and to reduce the natural tendency to grow larger has been a priority for some breeding companies. There is a great deal of variation between the products being offered to the industry. Although egg weight can and is altered by feeding and management, more than one product is usually necessary to fill the needs of the varied industry requirements around the world.

The shell of the egg - a package provided by nature, must be able to withstand the insults to which itís exposed, from the time the hen deposits it on the cage floor (often dropped) to the time the consumer reaches for it to crack open. Increasing automation of egg handling has induced plenty of ìinsultsî and eggs with less than perfect shells often crack. Direct and indirect measures are used to assess shell strength, including shell weight, deformation and breaking strength. Specific gravity has been used extensively to estimate the amount of shell on the egg and has done a good job in maintaining shell integrity opposite the large increases in productivity. Research is being done with regard to the structure of the shell and holds promise for new tools that will improve upon ìnatureís own packageî. The surface of the shell, both color and texture is also receiving attention. Consumers of brown eggs prefer uniform dark brown eggs free of dark brown spots. Color is measured either subjectively or by analysis of light reflection from the shell while visual and tactile assessment is used for texture qualities.

Internal egg quality traditionally has been aimed at producing eggs free of inclusions and with firm albumin Additional traits are being considered in breeding programs with the advent of further processing, in particular dry mater content and yolk/albumin ratio.

Despite the long history of selection on the so-called classical traits, pure-lines continue to show enough variation for further improvement. Heritabilities of most egg production traits are quite stable.

New breeding technology to better meet the needs of current and future market trends has or is being developed. Improving livability and behavior traits of layers kept under varied and changing conditions throughout the world is a major challenge for those breeding laying chickens. Almost in all cases layers are maintained in groups ranging from as little as 3-4 birds to large flocks kept in floor pens or on ìfree rangeî. Breeding programs of the past consisted of maintaining pure lines in single bird cages - good for trait measurement but does not allow for expression of genetic potential under the conditions of the commercial layer industry. Techniques are being employed whereby pedigreed commercial type birds are maintained under conditions typical of the layer industry i.e. multiple bird, high light intensity and in some cases non beak trimmed in order to measure family differences in these traits. This information is translated back to pure line breeding programs and will help to improve those behavioral traits that are necessary to live in multiple bird groups. Cannibalism, prolaspe, internal infections and poor feathering are traits that occur when birds are maintained in groups. Some families are much more prone to developing weakness in these traits than others and are eliminated from the breeding program.

Maintenance of immune competence is a very important aspect of remaining healthy and able to cope with stress and disease challenges. Selection within the Major Histocompatibility complex (identified through blood type) has been ongoing for years and has helped to produce more Marekís resistant chickens. Currently studies are being conducted on other aspects of the complex immune system of the chicken and very likely in the future molecular genetics will provide additional tools through DNA markers that can differentiate those birds with the better immune systems.

Other areas of biotechnology including gene transfer and cloning, are being used by certain private companies to develop chickens that will be used for very specific purposes. These will not affect the commercial layer industry to any great extent in the near future.

Specialty eggs with enhanced levels of Omega -3 fatty acids is a growing segment of the industry. There is some evidence that certain stocks deposit these in a more efficient manner than others. It is an area that breeders will need to evaluate in order to determine the feasibility of improving their stocks with respect to this particular trait.

Breeding layer chickens requires collection and analysis of a very large amount of information. New techniques in data recording along with highly complex analysis systems have recently been developed and will help to maintain genetic progress at itís highest possible level.

Conclusion

Prediction of the profile of the layer of 2010 is not too difficult as much of what she will be is already in the pipeline. Goals of the layer breeder are influenced by both the needs of the producer and the demands of the consumer. Producers needs still remain to produce eggs in as efficient a manner as possible while the consumer is having more influence on how the eggs are produced. The layer of 2010 will be substantially improved but not dramatically changed. She will be capable of laying 12-15 more eggs of better quality per hen housed and consume up to 8 grams less feed per egg. With improved breeding techniques the 2010 layer will be better able to cope with group type environments, less prone to cannibalism, and many flocks will be maintained with no beak trimming. There will be a growing portion of flocks dedicated to producing ìhealthyî eggs with increased levels of Omega-3 fatty acids.

I think thereís an optimistic future in store for the egg industry. The egg is an extremely good food product. Continued efforts in research and consumer awareness programs will keep the current trend of increased consumption alive.

References

Hunton, P.H. The Cost of Welfare. OVUM technical newsletter August 2002

Bell, D. Table Egg Layer Flock Projections and Economic Commentary - 2002