Weekly Body Weight Patterns and Their Associations with Fleshing Score and Feather Drop in Broiler Breeders in Preparation for the Production Phase
Hermus Syaifudin1, Mukhlis Efendi1, Filoza Marwi2, and Muhammad Halim Natsir2,*Please Just Try to Submit This Sample Abstract

Hermus Poultry Consultant, Lawang, Malang, East Java, Indonesia. E-mail: hermus.syaifudin[at]gmail.com- mukhlisme[at]gmail.com
2Faculty of Animal Science and Technology, Universitas Brawijaya, 65145, Indonesia. E-mail: filozamarwi[at]ub.ac.id

*)Corresponding author: emhanatsir[at]ub.ac.id

Abstract

This study examined weekly body weight patterns and their associations with fleshing score and feather drop in broiler breeders aged 12-23 weeks in preparation for the production phase. Records comprised 2,160 observations from 180 birds in two houses and three size grades. House, grade, and sample number identified repeated birds. Feather measurements at weeks 21-23 were provisionally treated as equivalent to earlier feather-drop measurements. Friedman and paired Wilcoxon tests evaluated temporal changes- Kruskal-Wallis and Dunn tests assessed weekly grade differences. House-adjusted partial Spearman correlations evaluated body weight-fleshing and body weight-feather associations within each week and grade. Restricted-permutation p-values used Holm correction across 108 pairwise tests. All variables differed across ages within each grade (adjusted p<0.001). Body weight distributions differed among grades at nine ages, excluding weeks 12, 15, and 17. Body weight-fleshing coefficients were positive throughout (0.312-0.700), with significance in 32 of 36 week-grade combinations. Body weight-feather coefficients were negative throughout (-0.777 to -0.097), with significance in 22 combinations. Both associations were significant in 21 combinations and across all grades at weeks 17, 18, 19, and 22. Median paired body weight gains from weeks 12 to 23 were 1,435, 1,447, and 1,584.5 g for small, normal, and large grades, respectively. Body weight was consistently associated with fleshing, whereas feather-related associations varied more among weeks and grades. Bird matching, feather definitions, and limited independent replication constrain interpretation. Weekly body weight variation provided complementary information about fleshing and feather indicators. Concurrent associations at weeks 17, 18, 19, and 22 support further evaluation of combined monitoring, without establishing causal effects or optimal assessment ages.

Keywords: broiler breeders- weekly body weight- fleshing score- feather drop- body size grade.

Topic: Animal Farming Management and Production