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Conception of an organic chicken breed - with special attention to a possible dual purpose use

Project


Project code: 2815OE097
Contract period: 01.01.2017 - 31.12.2019
Budget: 478,955 Euro
Purpose of research: Applied research
Keywords: Poultry breeding

In the project, the first steps towards an independent organic chicken breeding in
Germany are taken. This includes:
A. Criteria development for an organic chicken breed (AP1)
B. Performance assessment and breeding development of promising origins (AP2 and AP3):
• Assessment of existing lines of Whiterock and New Hampshire origins, which are the basis for hybrid breeding,
• Breeder's development of the 'Domain Gold' cross from organic origins and performance testing,
• Evaluation and testing of three promising breeds (Bresse, Marans, Sussex), which are already kept as pure breed on some organic farms,
• Comparison of the performance of organic hybrids and their initial lines and breeds with an emphasis on the detection of genotype-environmental interactions.
C. Conceptual development of an organic chicken rearing program(AP4) with the following objective:
• Selection of the parameters and weighting for the definition of organic performance values,
• Identification of currently available suitable sources and races for an organic chicken breed program,
• Conceptual development of a sustainable and sustainable breeding program under the aspects financing, structural requirements of breeding work, risk protection, genetic variability.
Two basic breeding strategies are taken into account. The first is for larger organic farms with marketing to the wholesale. Here performance of the animals is main criterion for their profitability. Farms with smaller chicken populations, on the other hand, could also keep pure chicken races and compensate for their lower performance through higher prices in direct marketing of the products.
This proposal will therefore address the need for further development of the two strategies hybrid breeding and pure race breeding.

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