ANALYSIS ON CHANGING REGULATION OF BODY WEIGHT AND EGG WEIGHT OF CHINESE INDIGENOUS GOOSE (SHITOU GOOSE) IN OFF-SEASON BREEDING - Y. Guo; Z. H. Zhao; Q. Ni; X. Q. Chen; L. X. Li; B. Balasubramanian; R. M. Jia1; W. C. Liu1 (Journal of Animal and Plant Sciences, 2020)
The present experiment was conducted to investigate the changes of body weight and egg weight in Shitou geese during off-season breeding period, and compared with the productive data of Hy-line layers. A total of 364 male geese and 2000 female geese aged 2 years old were forced to molt. The changes of body weight, egg production and egg weight of the geese were recorded from the moratorium in February to the end of December. It was found that the body weight of female geese was significantly different in April and June (P < 0.05), but decreased slowly in the late period and the difference was not significant (P > 0.05). The body weight of male geese fluctuated, and there was no linear downward trend. Otherwise, the egg weight increased significantly from April to June, and then decreased slowly, showing wavy changes. Meanwhile, there was a significant positive correlation between female geese body weight and egg weight during breeding period (r = 0.584). In addition, the change rule of body weight and egg weight of Shitou goose is opposite to that of chicken.
Keywords: journal article; Shitou geese; body weight; egg weight; off-season breeding