Effects of Inbreeding on Production Traits in Turkeys

The effects of inbreeding on egg number, egg weight, percent hatchability, percent mortality, and 17-week body weight were studied on data from two generations of two breeding flocks used as male and female parents of commercial turkeys, respectively. In the male lines the average effects of a 10% increase of inbreeding were: 1) a loss of 5.25% hatchability due to the mother's inbreeding; 2) a loss of 5.66% hatchability due to embryo inbreeding; 3) a loss of 210 g of male and 130 g of female body weight at 17 weeks; 4) an increase of 1.4% mortality; 5) effects of inbreeding on egg number and egg weight were inconsistent. In the female lines much smaller inbreeding effects were estimated with larger standard errors. However, egg weight was strongly affected by inbreeding in female lines with a loss of about 1.5 g for 10% inbreeding.