Evaluation of the potentials of new scientific developments for commercial poultry breeding

Abstract

Some new scientific developments are reviewed with respect to commercial application in poultry breeding. In the case of conventional breeding, ‘Best Linear Unbiased Prediction’ (BLUP) of breeding values and ‘juvenile selection’ schemes are evaluated. In the area of molecular genetic technology, ‘DNA fingerprinting’ and certain aspects of ‘gene transfer’ are considered. The forceful arguments for the use of BLUP in dairy cattle breeding are not relevant to poultry. Its application is determined mainly by the balance between the additional cost of data processing and the value of the increase in genetic progress. The advantages of juvenile selection schemes for pure breeding are more obvious than for crossbreeding. The way in which the emphasis on crossbred records depends on the genetic correlation between purebred and crossbred information is also shown. The prospects for DNA fingerprinting as an aid to selection will depend much on the identification of linked ‘trait genes’ having a marked influence on performance. In the case of gene transfer between species with the objective of influencing performance, viability appears to be a major obstacle to application in animal breeding. Such problems may be less serious when transferring genes for disease resistance. The application of these new developments is complicated by the fact that the aim of poultry breeding is to produce crossbreds. The new developments that have been assessed have to compete in terms of economic efficiency with the particularly favourable conditions which poultry provide for the application of conventional breeding procedures.