Effect of mating combination and environmental factors on hatchability of chicken eggs in Tibet

Abstract

To improve the hatchability of introduced highyield chickens in Tibet, and ameliorate the egg yield and reproduction traits of the local Tibetan chickens, four mating combinations between the Recessive White and Tibetan chicken were employed to investigate the effect of the mating combination and environmental factors on hatchability in this study. The results showed that the fertility of the eggs with Tibetan chicken as female parent was significantly lower than that with Recessive White as female parent (P<0.05), while hatchability was the reverse (P<0.05). The embryonic mortality of Recessive White was significantly higher by 7.95% than the Tibetan chickens, particularly during the last stage of incubation. The hatchability of combination III, whose female parent was Tibetan chicken, was higher by 20.44% than combination II, whose female parent was Recessive White. This provided a theoretical basis for a cross using the Tibetan chicken as female parent. Binary logistic regression analysis results also showed that the mating combination and environmental temperature were of importance to egg hatchability.