Hatchery practices are key aspects of poultry production and are important in setting up broiler chickens for growth.
In traditional hatchery systems, once hatched, chicks go through a rigorous processing protocol including transportation to the growout location before the chicks have access to their first feed and water.
Recently, alternative hatching systems have been developed that can provide early access to feed and water either in the hatcher (before processing) or in the growout house through on-farm hatching (OFH).
OFH involves transporting eggs to the growout farm around day 18 of incubation, allowing chicks to hatch directly on the farm, which may mitigate the impact of the typical stressors of traditional hatchery systems such as transportation and delayed access to food and water.
In a recently published research note, researchers with Virginia Tech, University of Georgia and Ankara University in Türkiye pointed out that OFH can lead to improved early growth performance and reduced mortality rates in broilers, but no direct comparisons have been made between place of hatch and necrotic enteritis (NE) challenge.
They conducted a study that examined the effects of reducing early life stressors through OFH on broiler resilience under NE challenge. They reported their results in a recent issue of Poultry Science.
For the study, the researchers acquired embryonated eggs from a commercial hatchery at day 19 of incubation. Eggs were allocated to two groups: hatchery hatched and OFH. Hatchery hatched eggs were handled similarly to commercial hatchery protocols. OFH eggs were placed on floor pens covered with 8-10 cm of fresh wood shavings. Eggs were placed with the air sac positioned upward and with sides resting against one another. After completion of hatch, both sets of chicks were sorted and divided into two groups (within hatching system), with one group of each hatching type challenged with a unique, naturally occurring NE challenge model (i.e., a 2 x 2 factorial system with place of hatch [OFH vs. hatchery hatched] and NE challenge [nonchallenged vs challenged]).
Birds were raised in a controlled environment for 42 days and fed common corn-soybean meal diets during the starter, grower and finisher phases.
The researchers determined that there were no significant interaction effects on growth performance of the birds in terms of average daily gain (ADG), average daily feed intake (ADFI), feed conversion ratio (FCR), or mortality rate between place of hatch and NE challenge treatments during different experimental periods or the entire study.
That said, the NE challenged caused a significant reduction in ADG and ADFI and increased FCR in each measured interval up to day 28. Regardless of NE challenge, OFH birds exhibited significantly greater ADFI and greater ADG during those time intervals.
The researchers suggested that such improvements in early growth performance are likely due to the early access to feed and water that accelerates the development of the gastrointestinal tract and reduction in early post-hatch stressors. However, by day 42, the NE challenged birds experienced compensatory growth that reversed the reduced performance during the starter and grower periods, leading to equivalent growth performance among all treatment groups over the entire 42-day experimental period.
The researchers reported that hatching system had no impact on broiler immune response and nutrient transporters.
They concluded that OFH birds exhibited significantly better growth performance in both nonchallenged and under subclinical NE challenge conditions through day 28, but no long-term effects on performance were observed.
What does this mean for producers?
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OFH resulted in better broiler performance during starter and grower periods regardless of NE challenge conditions.
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OFH may hold potential as an alternative to traditional hatchery hatching.
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Additional research is needed to explore the combination of OFH with other strategies to improve bird performance and welfare.
The full paper, “Research Note: Effects of on-farm and hatchery hatching on broiler performance, intestinal lesions, and immune response during a subclinical necrotic enteritis challenge,” can be found in Poultry Science and online here.
DOI: 10.1016/j.psj.2024.104323