Hatching broilers on-farm or in the hatchery – what are the effects?
Research has shown that hatching on-farm enhanced mucosal morphology and modulated immunity, indicating improved intestinal health when compared to hatching in conventional hatcheries.
The hatch on-farm system provides early access to feed compared to hatch in hatchery (HH) systems.
The study, carried out at the Nutrition and Animal-Microbiota Ecosystems Laboratory, at KU Leuven, Belgium, looked at whether early feeding might promote favourable gut development, potentially improving intestinal health and broiler performance.
Previous studies have assessed the effects of hatch on-farm on chick quality, welfare and performance, and its impact on gut health, but the results have been inconclusive.
Study
The study involved a total of 560 Ross 308 male chicks reared until day 38, which were hatched either in a hatchery (n=280) or on-farm (n=280), with 14 replicates per system and 20 birds per pen.
Production parameters were periodically monitored with digestive and immune organ characteristics, intestinal permeability and histomorphology assessed on days 7, 14 and 38.
High throughput qPCR analysed 79 leal genes regarding barrier integrity, immune function, nutrient transporters, gut hormones, metabolism and oxidation.
Results
The results showed that chicks hatched on-farm had higher day-one bodyweights than HH chicks (P<0.01), but this advantage disappeared within the first week, with no subsequent performance differences found.
Hatched on-farm chickens demonstrated increased duodenal villus width on day 7 and 14 and increased ileal crypt depth and submucosal thickness on day 7 (P<0.05). Relative bursal weight was higher on day 14 (P=0.018) and tended to be higher on day 38 in HOF chickens (P=0.094).
Intestinal permeability remained unaffected (P>0.05), while HH chicks showed upregulation of gut barrier genes such as MUC5ac on day 7 and CLDN2 and MUC2 on day 14 (P<0.05). HH chicks also showed upregulation of nutrient transports including VDR on day 7 and SLC30A1 and SLC5A9 on day 38, and decreased expression of the appetite-suppressing hormone CCK on day 7 (P<0.05). Hatched on-farm chicks upregulated immune-related genes, including IL-8 on day 7, IL-6, IFN-γ, AVBD9 on day 14, and NOS2 on day 38 (P<0.05), and the oxidation gene HIF1A on day 38 (P=0.039).
Join 31,000+ subscribers
Subscribe to our newsletter to stay updated about all the need-to-know content in the poultry sector, three times a week.
