Breeding parameters, phenotypic correlations among parameters with the effects of cage position and stocking density on stress and performance in the laying period in Denizli chickens

In this study, breeding parameters, phenotypic correlations among parameters with the effect of cage position and stocking density on stress and performance in the laying period in Denizli chickens were investigated. The material of this study was consisted of 400 20-d old Denizli breed chicks from Denizli Directorate of the Ministry of Agriculture.All chicks were housed in a pen with deep litter to the end of growth period (18 weeks). All male and female chicks were grown togather from the first period to the end of the ninth week. In the study, all measurements were performed from 263 female birds with starting from the 10th week. Water and feed were provided ad libitum. During the growth period, live weight, shank lenght, liveability, food consumption, feed convertion ratio and phenotypic correlations were investigated.In the laying period (19-44 weeks), a total of 252 Denizli breed hens were allocated to California type battery cages (48x41x46 cm) systematically to form cage density (three, four and five birds/cage) and cage position (top, middle and bottom tier level) groups. Animals were given food and water ad libidum. To make clear the influence of cage density and cage position effects on production traits; live weight, food consumption, feed convertion ratio, egg production, egg weight, liveability, egg quality traits, heterophil lenphocyte ratio and phenotypic correlations among some parameters were investigated.In the study, differences among live weight, shank lenght, food consumption, feed convertion ratio among cage position groups were found statistically non-significant, differences between egg production and egg weight among cage density groups were found statistically significant (P<0,05, P<0,01). On this occasion, egg production and egg weight were the highest in the three bird density group (% 52,8 and 51,17 g, respectively) and the lowest in the five bird density group (% 46,3 ve 50,65 g, respectively). The highest average daily food consumption was found as 125,90 g in the three bird density group and this was higher (P<0,05) than the other density groups. On this context, the best feed convertion ratio was obtained (2477,44 g food/12 eggs) from the three bird density group while the worst from the five bird group (9058,36 g food/12 eggs). Egg weight was determined as the highest (51,25 g) in the top tier while the lowest in the birds in the bottom tier (50,60 g). Liveability was found as statistically significant (P<0,05) in all cage position groups for 38, 39, 40, 41, 42 ve 44 weeks age periods while significance was detected in all cage density groups except 19-24 weeks of age (P<0,05, P<0,01, P<0,001). The effect of cage position on Haugh unit, yolk diameter, yolk index, albumin weight, albumin lenght, albumin width, albumin height, albumin index were found significant (P<0,05, P<0,01, P<0,001). The effect of cage density on shape index, yolk color, shell weight, shell ratio, shell thickness, yolk diameter, albumin weight, albumin width were found as non-significant while on Haugh unit, yolk weight, yolk index, albumin lenght, albumin height, albumin index were significant (P<0,01, P<0,001). The effect of cage density and cage position on heterofil lymphocyte ratio at 18, 30 and 44 weeks of age were non-significant. In the research, the highly positive and statistically significant (P<0,01) correlations were determined among live weight, shank lenght at 20, 30 and 40 weeks of age. At the end of the study, the positive and statistically significant (P<0,01) correlations were determined among egg weight and yolk weight, shell thickness, shell weight, albumin ratio, the lowly negative and statistically non-significant phenotypic correlations were determined among yolk weight and shell thickness, shell ratio, shape index as internal quality characterictics at 30-42 weeks.