Comparison of BUT Big 6 commercial turkey production performance in Iran with the breed standards

Subject Areas : Veterinary Clinical Pathology

پیام Haghighi Khoshkhoo ¹ (Department of Clinical Sciences, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Islamic Azad University- Karaj Branch, Karaj, Iran)
گیتا Akbari Azad ² (Department of Clinical Sciences, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Islamic Azad University- Karaj Branch, Karaj, Iran)
علی Masoudian ³ (Postgraduate Student of Department of Clinical Sciences, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Islamic Azad University- Science and Research Branch, Tehran, Iran)

Received: 2009-11-10 Accepted : 2010-10-02 Published : 2010-05-22

Keywords: Iran, BUT Big 6, Commercial Turkey, Flock Performance,

Abstract :

In order to evaluate the management of commercial turkey production and finding existing problems in Iran, 15 commercial flocks of BUT Big6 breed (including 72000 commercial turkeys) were selected randomly and monitored up to marketing age. In this study flock performances based on mean body weight and its coefficient of variation percentage, feed consumption, feed conversion rate, livability percentage and European Efficacy Factor were recorded in 15 flocks for each sex individually and statistically analyzed by SPSS program .The results showed that the mean body weight, livability percentage and European Efficacy Factor in all flocks were significantly lower than the breed's standards (P<0.001). Feed consumption and feed conversion rate were also significantly higher than the standard (P<0.001) and the coefficient of variation percentage was only acceptable in 6 flocks (40% of flocks). It is recommended that for improvement of this developing industry in Iran, increasing technical managements, preparation of special equipments for turkey farming and farmer training are required. 

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