Hatching performance of breeder turkey as influenced by parental age

Abstract

A total of 7452 hatching eggs collected from 29 to 72 weeks of age of turkey breeders were analyzed. Parental age exhibited a highly significant (p<0.01) influence on mean per cent total hatchability, fertile hatchability and total embryonic mortality and non significant (p0.05) influence on per cent fertility. Significantly (p<0.01) higher per cent total hatchability, fertile hatchability and lower mean per cent total embryonic mortality were observed as the age of the bird advanced from 29 to 52 and 65 to 72 weeks except during 53-64 weeks. It can be concluded that significantly better hatching performance were recorded from the eggs laid by turkey breeder hen during 29 to 52 and 65 to 72 weeks of age and hence, it is advisable to collect hatching eggs from 29 weeks to 52 weeks of age of turkey breeders to obtain higher hatchability performance.