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DIRECT SELECTION RESPONSE FOR FEED EFFICIENCY OF

EGG PRODUCTION UNDER DIFFERENT FEEDING
REGIMESIN SINAI FOWLS

Soltan, M.E.; A.A. Enab and S.A. Farrag

Poultry Production Dept., Faculty of Agriculture, Menoufiya Univ., Egypt.

ABSTRACT:
The present experimentcontinued for three generations and aimedto study the
possibility of improvement the feed efficiency of Sinai fowl during laying period.Special
selection index was applied to improvefeed efficiencyfor egg production. Family sizekept
stable as possible in order to minimizethe inbreeding, full sib mating was avoided. The
selected lines were (selected regardless of feeding regime (AS), selected with free feeding
(SF) and selected with twice feeding (ST)) and control lines were (control regardless of
feeding regime (AC), control with free feeding (CF) and control with twice feeding (CT)).
The following results wereobtained: 1) Means of feed efficiency (selected trait) in
selected lines were 6.24, 4.99and 4.88 (g feed /1 g egg) in base, 1st and 2nd generation
respectively for AS line; 6.16, 4.64 and 4.82 for SF line and 6.31, 5.35and 4.94 for ST line.
The corresponding values in control lines were 6.17, 6.36 and 6.08 for AC line, 6.06, 6.20
and 5.58 for CF line and 6.27, 6.53 and 6.53 (g feed / 1 g egg) for CT line, respectively. 2)
The differences between generations; lines were highly significant. The differences
between feeding regimes used in the current study were significant. 3) The cumulative
realized selection responses in the last generation were equal to – 1.20, – 0.76 and – 1.59 g
where the expected values were – 0.878, – 0.676 and – 1.088 g in the same generation for
AS, SF and ST lines, respectively. The differences were equal to (– 0.322, – 0.084 and –
0.502). 4) It was noticed that the realized heritability was higher than the calculated value
from dam+sire component for all lines over all generations.
These results illustrate the possibility of improving feed efficiency of Sinai Bedouin
fowls during laying period by using selection indices method in both feeding regimes.
Key words: Selection, feed efficiency, feeding regime, Sinai fowl.

INTRODUCTION:
Feed efficiency is an important trait to be improved to realize income over feed cost.
The efficiency of feed utilization is a complex character and can be defined in a number of
ways. Feed conversion is the ratio of feed:egg mass in egg-type poultry and feed:gain
in meat type poultry. In each case, feed efficiency is the inverse of feed conversion
(i.e. egg mass:feed, gain:feed). An increase in feed efficiency and a decrease in feed
conversion both indicate improved feed utilization (Fairfull and Chambers, 1984). Due to
direct selection to increase egg production, improvement in feed conversion has been
achieved in the commercial laying stocks. The improvement in feed efficiency is primarily
due to increase in egg mass. It is generally accepted that feed costs represent about 70% of
the cost of poultry production (Hagger and Marguerat 1985; Basso et al., 2012) and this

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makes a bird's ability to use feed efficiently very important and a major input of poultry
enterprise.
Over the last five years, the costs of poultry feed ingredients have increased
substantially. This has been due to an increased use of corn for ethanol production and a
greater overall global feed grain demand. Across the poultry industry this has led to higher
production costs and reaffirmed the importance of feed efficiency on profitability(Schmit et
al., 2009 and Willems et al., 2013). Consequently, improvements in feed efficiency can not
only increase profitability of the poultry industries by lowering production costs but also
decrease environmental impact by reducing environmental emissions.
Bentsen (1983) concluded that feed efficiency for egg production had a real genetic
basis and information on food consumption should be incorporated in a selection program,
which should enhance genetic gain in egg production efficiency. Feed conversion ratio is
moderately heritable in poultry, consequently, improvement would be possible in feed
efficiency using FCR as the selection criterion (Pakdel et al., 2005; Aggrey et al., 2010;
Case et al., 2010). Willems et al., 2013, reported that, selection based on FCR have made
significant improvements in feed efficiency.
One of the most effective ways to improve feed conversion is through breeding
(Fairfull and Chambers, 1984). This includes selection within strains to achieve genetic
gains over time, testing and selecting breeds or strains for crossing to take advantage
of heterosis. Family information could be employed in selection to improve feed
efficiency, but not as effectively as individual information. Also, this would eliminate
the problem of extrapolating from individual to group housing conditions.In egg lines,
feed efficiency depends mainly on body size and egg production of the hen. Selection for
higher egg production has improved feed efficiency of laying birds, mainly because the
amount of feed needed for maintenance remained almost stable as possible while egg
production increased (Soltan et al., 2009). Studies conducted by Soltan et al.(1985)
indicated that mean of feed efficiency (g / 1 gegg mass) was 6.34 g in Sinai Bedouin fowl.
On another study by Soltan et al. (2009) they reported that, means of feed efficiency (g / 1 g
egg mass) were 4.76, 7.93 g for selected and control lines,respectively, after three
generations of mass selection for feed efficiency.
Soltanmoradi et al., 2013 reported that, splitting the daily feed allotment can ensure
that a sufficient volume of feed is provided at each feeding time to minimize competition
among the hens. Influence of increasing feeding frequency may be related to reduction of
the fasting period during the day-light cycle (Morris and Nalbandov, 1961; Moradiet al.,
2013).
The present work was conducted to study the effect of selection for high feed
efficiency under two feeding regimes (free and twice) in Sinai fowl to improve feed
efficiency during the laying period as a direct response.

MATERIALS AND METHODS:

The present experiment was carried out in the Poultry Farm, Department of Poultry
Production, Faculty of Agriculture, Menuofiya University at Shibin El-Kom, Egypt. Sinai
Bedouin fowl local strain was used in the current study. The experimental records lasted for
three generations (base, first and second). The aim of the experiment was to study the

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possibility of improvement the feed efficiency of Sinai fowl during laying period under
twofeeding regimes.
Flock history and the experimental design: flock history was briefly presented and
summarized by Soltan et al., 2009. Special selection index was used to select laying Sinai
hens under two regimes of feeding (free and twice feeding through the day; at 9:00-10:00
AM and 2:00-3:00 PM) and control lineswere established for studying the different factors
applied in the present research, the tow studied feeding regimes were applied also on tow
control groups. The selected lines were: selected lines regardless of feeding regime (AS);
selected line with free feeding (SF) and selected line with twice feeding (ST), and control
lines were: control lines regardless of feeding regime (AC); control line with free feeding
(CF) and control line with twice feeding (CT).
The selection for high feed efficiency (FCR) in the selected lines based on the value
of a special index which calculated according to the following equation:

Where:
X1 = the value of the selection trait on the individual.
X2 = the mean value of the selection trait on full-sibs family of the individual.
= the mean value of the trait for the studied strain.
b1and b2 = a weighted factors for the selection trait for individuals (b1) and full-sibs
families (b2), extracted from Flock et al., 1971.
Assuming , number of individuals in full-sibs families = 5 and the h2 value of
feed efficiency trait = 0.30 the values of b1 and b2 will be 0.25 and 0.35 respectively. While,
assuming , number of individuals in full-sibs families = 3 and the h2 value of feed
efficiency trait = 0.30 the values of b1 and b2 will be 0.26 and 0.62 respectively.
After calculation of the index values, these values were sorted in ascending order and
the highest 40% of the birds were selected to produce the next generation.
Collecting Data: Data of 584 hens over three generations (base, first and second)
were collected and utilized to study the effect of selection for feed efficiency under two
feeding regimes (free and twice feeding) on the production performance and some genetic
parameters. A base population consisted of 250 Sinai pullets aged 20 weeks were used to
measure individually remain feed consumption. Precautions were taken to collect residual
feed (i.e. the remainder feed). Feed consumption was calculated as the difference between
taken feed and residual feed. A total of 124 hens were chosen at random from the base
population as a control line with no significant difference between control and the base
lines. Twenty four females and 8 males were chosen at random with aim to keep family size
stable as possible in order to minimize the inbreeding effect according to Soltan (1984), and
mated randomly with expectations of the full sib mating.Mating system was applied by
collect semen from one sire to three dams. Insemination was done twice a week and two
weeks before collecting hatching eggs. The semen used for the insemination was fresh and
undiluted.
Chicks were brooded in floor brooder watered continuously and fed ad libitum during
brooding period a diet (1) containing 21.1 % crude protein and 2734.6 ME/kg. kcal, then at
16 weeks of age the ration was changed by a layer ration containing 17.4 % crude protein
and 2779.6 ME / kg. Kcal, the compositions of the two rations are given in Table (1).

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Precautions were taken to estimate the actual feed intake per hen using separate
individual cages and more over enough distances between hens were provided to avoid
mixed ration. Every week individual records were taken for egg production. Eggs were
weighed 3 days every week (Saturday, Tuesday and Thursday). Feed intake were weighed
and introduced 3 days weekly (700 g / hen / weekly). Feed residual were weighed every
two weeks till the end of experiment period (90 days). Feed consumption was calculated for
each individual hen as the difference between feed intake and feed residual.
Feed efficiency for egg production during the first 90 days of production was
calculated according to the following equation:

Statistical analysis: Recorded data were subjected to statistical analysis usingIBM

SPSS Statistics for Windows, program version (21.0). The following model was used:

Where:
= The observation on lthbird.
= The overall mean.
= The fixed effect of ith generation.
= The fixed effect of jth line within the ith generation.
= The fixed effect of the kthfeeding regime.
= The interaction between ith generation and jth line.
= The interaction between ith generation and kthfeeding regime.
= The interaction between jth line and kthfeeding regime.
= The interaction between ith generation and jth line and kthfeeding regime.
= The random error assumed to be normally distributed with zero mean and variances

Estimation of genetic parameters:The least squares and maximum likelihood

general purpose program – mixed model LSMLMW (Harvey, 1990) model (4) was used to
estimate the values of heritability and phenotypic, genetic and environmental correlation for
the studied population. The general random model utilized by (LSMLMW) was as follow:
Yijk    Si  Dij  eijk
Where:
Yijk = Observation of the Kth progeny of the ith sire and jth dam.
µ = Common mean
Si = Random effect of ith sire
Dij = Random effect of jth dam within ith sire.
eijk = Random error assumed to be normally distributed with zero mean and variance σ2e.

 Heritability was estimated according to the method of Becker (1984):

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Where:
= Sires component of variance.
= Dams component of variance.
= Progeny within mating components of variance.

- Genetic gain:
 Actual genetic gain was calculated as deviation from the control line performance by
equation given by Hill (1972) as follows:
Where: S and C are the means of selected and control lines in generation number (t).
 Expected genetic gain ( was calculated according to the formula given by Pirchner
(1979):

Where: S = selection differential (mean of selected individuals – mean of stock).

2
h = heritability of the trait.
 Realized heritabilities were estimated according to Hill (1972) as follow:

Where: Rt= Cumulative response and St = Cumulative selection differential in

generation (t).
 Rate of increasing inbreeding per generation was calculated according to Falconer
(1960) by the following formula:

Where: = rate of increasing inbreeding per generation.

= effective number of population.
= real population size.
= variation of family size.

RESULTS AND DICUSSION:

Data in Table (2) showed the means of the selected trait [feed efficiency (g feed/ 1 g
egg)] for the selected lines(AS, SF and ST) and control (AC, CF and CT) lines, which were
estimated for the base population and two selected generations (1st and 2nd respectively).In
the selected lines feed efficiency were 6.24, 4.99 and 4.88 (g feed /1 g egg) in base, 1st and
2ndgeneration respectively for AS line, 6.16, 4.64and 4.82 for SF line and 6.31, 5.35 and
4.94 for ST line. The corresponding values in control lines were 6.17, 6.36and 6.08 for AC
line, 6.06, 6.20and 5.58 for CF line and 6.28, 6.53 and 6.53 (g feed / 1 g egg) for CT line,
respectively. These values were in agreement with that obtained by Soltan (1984),El-Neney
(1996) and Soltan et al., (2009). It is clear that, the means in selected lines was reduced
comparing with control lines. In control lines the means were approximately constant
through the experimental generations.
Data presented in Table (3) illustrated that, the differences between generations for
the selected trait were highly significant. The differences between selected and control lines
were also highly significant reflecting thepositive effect of selection on feed efficiency.
Similar findings were noticed by Soltan (1984), El-Neney (1996), Bordas and Minvielle
(1999), Flock and Tiller (1999), Hazary et al. (2002), Reddy et al. (2004) and Soltan et al.,
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(2009).The interaction between generations and lines was significant, while, the interaction
between generations was not. The differences between feeding regimes used in the current
study were significant (Table, 3).Our results were in a good agreement with those
previously reported by de Avila et al., (2003), Spradley et al., (2008), Taherkhani et al.,
(2010) and Moradiet al., (2013). Finally the interaction between lines and feeding regimes
was not significant, as well as the interaction between generations, line and feeding regime
was not significant.
Selection response:Expected and realized selection differentials, selection intensity
and selection response were presented in Table (4). It was indicated that, generally the
realized selection response for the selected trait (feed efficiency) was higher than the
expected response for all selected lines. This is expected due to the fact that, selection have
appositive effect on selection traits. The same trend was reported previously by Soltan et al.
(2009). The cumulative realized selection response in the last generation were equal to –
1.200, – 0.760 and – 1.590 g where the expected value were–0.878, –0.676 and – 1.088 g
in the same generation for AS, SF and ST lines, respectively. The differenceswere equal to
(– 0.332, – 0.084 and – 0.502). These results illustrate the possibility of improving feed
efficiency of Sinai Bedouin fowls during laying period by direct selection for more than 2
generations of using selection indices method merging data from relatives. The current
results are in fully agreement with those obtained by Soltan et al. (2009).
Results(Table, 4)showed that, selection differential differed from one generation to
another according to the realized selection intensity in each generation which was affected
by population size, the fertility and hatchability of the selected hens to produce the next
generation. Similar finding was obtained by Soltan (1984), Soltan (1991) and Soltan et al.,
(2009). The magnitude of the selection differential depended on two factors; the proportion
of the population included among the selected group and the phenotypic standard deviation
of the selected trait. The standardized selection differential (S/σp) was called the intensity of
selection.
Rate of increasing the inbreeding coefficient was obtained in Table (4) according to
Falconer (1960). In control lines one female and one male were chosen at random from
every family in each generation so, variation of family size (σ2K) was equal zero (Gowe et
al. (1959), Soltan (1984) and Soltan et al. (2009)). Therefore, inbreeding coefficient was at
minimum rate, and this will lead to more accuracy of determining the realized selection
response. In selected lines, the rates of increasing the inbreeding coefficient were lower
than 2 % in each generation. So, the performance of the selected line was not affected by
inbreeding. Similar findings were marked by Soltan (1984), (1992a) and Soltan et al.
(2009).

Data presented in Table (5) showed the realized and calculated heritabilities
according to dam and sire components. It was noticed that the realized heritability was
higher than the calculated value from dam+sire component for all lines over all generations.
Similar high values were noticed by Khosravinia et al. (1999), Sabri and Abdel-Warith
(2000 a, b), Reddy et al. (2004) and Dymkov et al. (2006), Soltan et al., (2009). The
selected trait had a higher heritability estimates and this may be due to the effect of the
higher additive variance of this trait (Table 5) and high correlation with body weight and

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egg number. Similar finding was obtained by Wing and Nordskog (1982a and 1982b),
Pirchner (1985).

Table (1): Composition of the experimental rations.

Ingredients Starter ration Layer ration
Ground yellow corn 57 65
Soybean meal 37 27
Limestone 1.8 2.5
Salt 0.5 0.5
di-calcium phosphate 2 2.35
Bone meal 1.35 2.3
Methionine 0.1 0.1
*
Vitamin and mineral premix % 0.25 0.25
Total kg 100 100
Crude protein 21.1 17.4
ME/kg. kal. 2734.6 2779.6
* Pfizer premix provided per kilo gram of diets:-
10000 IU Vit. A, 2000 IU Vit. D3, 2 mg Vit. E, 3 mg Vit. B3, 3 mg Vit. B2, 10 mg pantothenic, 250
mg choline, 25 mg Fe, 10 mg Mg, 2 mg Cu, 1.2 mg I and 0.2 mg Co.

Table (2): Means of selected trait during test period in different experimental lines
throw the generations of the experiment.
Generations
Line
Base First Second
Selected regardless of feeding regime (AS) 6.24±0.22 4.99±0.11 4.88±0.11
Selected with free feeding (SF) 6.16±0.32 4.64±0.11 4.82±0.17
Selected with twice feeding (ST) 6.31±0.29 5.35±0.19 4.94±0.14
Control regardless of feeding regime (AC) 6.17±0.20 6.36±0.54 6.08±0.27
Control with free feeding (CF) 6.06±0.29 6.20±0.57 5.58±0.35
Control with twice feeding (CT) 6.28±0.27 6.53±0.94 6.53±0.38

Table (3): Analysis of variance for the studied traits

during the experimental period among three
generations:
Source of M.S.
d.f.
variance FE
G 2 21.326**
L 1 58.790**
FR 1 14.921*
G×L 2 24.285**
G×FR 2 1.623
L×FR 1 0.645
G×L×FR 2 2.139
Error 572 3.693
G = generation, L = line, FR = feeding regime, BWM = body weight at maturity,
EM = egg mass, EN = egg number at first 90 days of egg production, EW = egg
weight, FE = feed efficiency (g/g egg mass).

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Table (4): Expected and realized selection differential, selection intensity and
selection response of feed efficiency in three experimental generations and the rate
of increasing of inbreeding.
Expected Realized
Line G ΔF1 ΔF2 ΔF2
ΔS i ΔG ΔS i ΔG
G -2.201 1.4 -0.439 -1.053 1.49 0.174 0.420 0.847
S Total
1
G -2.201 1.4 -0.878 -1.123 1.46 -1.200 0.185 0.420 1.020
2
G -1.802 1.4 -0.338 -0.811 1.49 0.349 0.847 1.742
S Free
1
G -1.802 1.4 -0.676 -1.248 1.46 -0.760 0.370 0.847 2.173
2
G -2.287 1.4 -0.544 -1.305 1.49 0.349 0.847 1.742
S Twice
1
G2 -2.287 1.4 -1.088 -0.997 1.46 -1.590 0.375 0.847 2.000
ΔS = selection differential for selected trait, i = selection intensity of selected trait, ΔG = selection response
for selected trait, ΔF1 = rate of increasing of inbreeding in each generation of selected line, ΔF 2 = rate of
increasing of inbreeding in each generation of control line

Table (5): Calculated and realized heritability and additive variance of

feed efficiency in different selected lines.
Calculated Additive
Line G Realized h2
Method h2 ± SE variance
G1 D 0.417±0.294 2.064
AS
G2 S+D 0.504±0.195 0.552 3.699
G1 D n.e. 1.883
SF
G2 S+D 0.162±0.213 0.396 0.698
G1 D n.e. 16.153
ST
G2 S+D n.e. 0.691 0.698
AS = selected regardless of feeding regime, SF = selected with free feeding, ST = selected
with twice feeding, n.e. = non estimable.

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