STAGE OF MATERNAL LINES DEVELOPMENT OF HEAVY CROSS TURKEYS

Abstract

In terms of the share of meat, turkey farming occupies 10 % of the total
production of poultry meat in the world. As for Russian poultry meat in 2021, it amounted to
8 % or 400,1 thousand tons of finished products in slaughter weight. Selective breeding in
turkey farming on the world level is carried out with turkeys of heavy and medium crosses in
order to achieve a high ultimate yield of meat products. In the Russian Federation, the development of a domestic heavy cross of turkeys has begun: population genetic parameters in the
lines have been studied; pedigree material has been selected to develop maternal lines. During
the research, the productive and reproductive abilities of heavy cross maternal lines were
evaluated. It was noted that the line RL11 with egg fertility at the level of 95 %, hatchability
rate of eggs – 82,63%, hatching of young animals at the level of 78,5% exceeded over the
other studied lines. Also, the morphological and biochemical parameters of turkey eggs were
analyzed when evaluating the maternal lines of the developed cross. According to the morphology of the eggs, the parameters corresponded mainly to the technical specifications. In
line RL11, the egg shape index was 0,67 lower; the ratio of egg white mass to yolk mass was
0,03 lower, which may be typical for the line under test. According to the studied biochemical
indicators of eggs, compliance with the standard level was established with the accumulation
of vitamin B2 in the egg white by 0,08 μg / g more than the upper limit of the standard and the
pH of the egg white was less by 0,05 units of the lower limit of the standard level, which indicates the good quality of hatching eggs.
From all maternal lines of turkeys, day-old young animals were obtained, and their
production parameters were studied. It was noted that young turkeys at 8 weeks of age in the
RL11 line had the lowest feed consumption for live weight gain. Research is ongoing.