The Effect of Hatching System and Egg Weight on Production Traits in Turkish Geese: Growth Performance, Slaughter and Meat Quality Traits

Abstract

This study was aimed to determine the effect of hatching system (house and machine) and egg\rweight (heavy and light) on growth performance and meat quality traits in geese. The study was\rcarried out for 12 weeks with a total of 220 Turkish native geese. The geese were individually\rweighed every 2 weeks during the study, on these same weeks feed conversion ratio (FCR) was\rmeasured. Hot and cold dressed, blood, head, foot, edible internal organs (heart, liver, gizzard),\rabdominal fat, neck, back, breast, thigh and wing percentages were determined. Also cooking loss,\rdrip loss, color and pH were determined as meat quality traits. There was no significant difference\rbetween the egg weight groups in terms of BW. However, the geese produced in the house hatching\rsystem showed more BW from 6 to 12 weeks of age onwards compared to the machine system.\rThere was no significant difference between the groups in terms of FCR by 8 weeks. Both 10 and\r12 weeks FCR were determined as the worst house heavy, while the best house light groups. Hot\rand cold carcass percentages in geese hatched from heavy were higher rates than light eggs. The\rpercentage of wings differed significantly among geese produced from different egg weight groups.\rBreast meat cooking loss was found higher rates in heavy eggs than light eggs, while thigh meat\rcooking loss was found higher rates in the house than machine system. The results of this study\rshow that geese hatched in the house system had more BW at the slaughter age compared to machine\rsystem geese. In addition, geese produced from heavy eggs showed a higher hot and cold dressed\rpercentages than geese produced from light eggs.