Hatching, embryo death and chicks growth in dual purpose and brawl hens under natural hypobaric conditions

Abstract

The present study aimed to compare results for hatchability and growing performance of chicks from 2 biotypes, dual purpose (DP) and brawl (BR), in hipobaric conditions (2718 m above sea level). In experiment 1, a total of 352 hatching eggs were randomly arranged, 176 egg of DP y 176 BR. In experiment 2, a total of 114 one-day-old unsexed chickens were reared for 28 d. The experimental design for hatchability and chick performance variables was completely randomized with 2 treatments (DP and BR). There were no differences between the studied treatments for hatchability results (p>0.05). Hens’ biotype affected chicken performance in the rearing phase (p<0.01), where the DP chickens had better body weight and feed conversion than BR, but BR chickens had lower mortality than DP chickens.