Department of Poultry Science, College of Agriculture, Auburn University, Auburn, AL 38649, USA; Department of Animal Biosciences, Ontario Agricultural College, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON, Canada.
Department of Agricultural, Food, and Nutritional Science, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada.
Poult Sci. 2023 Apr;102(4):102542. doi: 10.1016/j.psj.2023.102542. Epub 2023 Jan 28.
The management of body weight (BW) in broiler breeder pullets is critical to offset the negative correlation between their growth potential and reproductive success. Therefore, a precision feeding system was developed to allocate feed individually based on real-time BW in more frequent, smaller portions. However, this system requires access beyond the 8 h daylength of the rearing period. Since green and red spectra have been shown to stimulate growth and sexual maturation, respectively, this study aimed to evaluate the impact of continuous supplemental illumination of feeders with monochromatic wavelengths on sexual maturation. Furthermore, the best combination of supplemental and daytime lighting for optimizing the pullet-to-hen transition period was investigated. This study contained a 2 × 4 × 2 factorial arrangement, with 2 daytime lights (dtRED and dtGREEN; n = 2 rooms), 4 supplemental lights (sBLUE, sGREEN, sRED, and sCON; n = 12 pens), and 2 supplemental intensities (High and Low). At 3 wk of age (woa), 480 female Ross 708 chicks were randomly distributed across treatments (n = 10/pen). All birds were feed restricted per management guidelines and maintained under 8 h of dtRED or dtGREEN. Birds were photostimulated at 20 woa with 14L:10D. All birds were weighed weekly, with age at first egg (AFE) and production rate calculated weekly per pen. Birds under sRED were heavier than all other treatments from 27 woa to the end of the study (P < 0.001; 30 woa), resulting in hens that were over 400-g heavier. This resulted from a delayed AFE and lower production rate under sRED, with higher intensity further hindering reproductive performance (P < 0.001). Interestingly, despite the inhibitory effect of continuous red lighting (sRED) on reproduction, dtRED resulted in a 3.15% higher rate of lay than dtGREEN. Therefore, this study suggests that while red light remains superior at stimulating reproduction, continuous red supplemental lighting results in photorefractoriness. Thus, we recommend green light in PF systems.
肉种鸡育成期雏鸡体质量（BW）的管理对于平衡其生长潜力与繁殖性能之间的负相关至关重要。因此，开发了一种精确饲喂系统，根据实时 BW 以更频繁、更小的分量分配饲料。然而，该系统需要在育雏期 8 小时光照时间之外使用。由于已证明绿光和红光分别能刺激生长和性成熟，因此本研究旨在评估连续补充光照对性成熟的影响。此外，还研究了最佳的补充光照和白天光照组合，以优化育成期到产蛋期的过渡。本研究包含一个 2×4×2 析因设计，2 种白天光照（dtRED 和 dtGREEN；n=2 个房间）、4 种补充光照（sBLUE、sGREEN、sRED 和 sCON；n=12 个笼位）和 2 种补充光照强度（高和低）。在 3 周龄（woa）时，480 只雌性 Ross 708 小鸡随机分配到处理组（n=每笼 10 只）。所有鸡都按照管理指南进行限饲，并在 8 小时的 dtRED 或 dtGREEN 光照下维持。在 20 woa 时，鸡用 14L：10D 进行光刺激。每周给所有鸡称重，每笼每周计算初产日龄（AFE）和产蛋率。从 27 woa 到研究结束时，sRED 组的鸡比其他所有处理组都重（P < 0.001；30 woa），母鸡体重超过 400g。这是由于 sRED 组的 AFE 延迟和产蛋率降低，高强度进一步阻碍了繁殖性能（P < 0.001）。有趣的是，尽管连续红光（sRED）对繁殖有抑制作用，但 dtRED 的产蛋率比 dtGREEN 高 3.15%。因此，本研究表明，尽管红光在刺激繁殖方面仍然具有优势，但连续的红光补充光照会导致光反射。因此，我们建议在 PF 系统中使用绿光。
