• Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.221-234
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• 1983

A study was conducted to devise a method to estimate the edible meat weight in live broilers. White Cornish broiler chicks CC, Single Comb White Leghorn egg strain chicks LL, and two reciprocal cross breeds of these two parent stocks (CL and LC) were employed A total of 240 birds, 60 birds from each breed, were reared and sacrificed at 0, 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10 weeks of ages in order to measure various body parameters. Results obtained from this study were summarized as follows. 1) The average body weight of CC and LL were 1,820g and 668g, respectively, at 8 weeks of age. The feed to gain ratios for CC and LL were 2.24 and 3.28, respectively. 2) The weight percentages of edible meat to body weight were 34.7, 36.8 and 37.5% at 6, 8 and 10 weeks of ages, respectively, for CC. The values for LL were 30.7, 30.5 and 32.3%, respectively, The CL and LC were intermediate in this respect. No significant differences were found among four breeds employed. 3) The CC showed significantly smaller weight percentages than did the other breeds in neck, feather, and inedible viscera. In comparison, the LL showed the smaller weight percentages of leg and abdominal fat to body weight than did the others. No significant difference was found among breeds in terms of the weight percentages of blood to body weight. With regard to edible meat, the CC showed significantly heavier breast and drumstick, and the edible viscera was significantly heavier in LL. There was no consistent trend in neck, wing and back weights. 4) The CC showed significantly larger measurements body shape components than did the other breeds at all time. Moreover, significant difference was found in body shape measurements between CL and LC at 10 weeks of age. 5) All of the measurements of body shape components except breast angle were highly correlated with edible meat weight. Therefore, it appeared to be possible to estimate the edible meat wight of live chickens by the use of these values. 6) The optimum regression equations for the estimation of edible meat weight by body shape measurements at 10 weeks of age were as follows. $$Y_{cc}=-1,475.581 +5.054X_{26}+3.080X_{24}+3.772X_{25}+14.321X_{35}+1.922X_{27}(R^2=0.88)$$ $$Y_{LL}=-347.407+4.549X_{33}+3.003X_{31}(R^2=0.89)$$ $$Y_{CL}=-1,616.793+4.430X_{24}+8.566X_{32}(R^2=0.73)$$ $$Y_{LC}=-603.938+2.142X_{24}+3.039X_{27}+3.289X_{33}(R^2=0.96)$$ Where $X_{24}$=chest girth, $X_{25}$=breast width, $X_{26}$=breast length, $X_{27}$=keel length, $X_{31}$=drumstick girth, $X_{32}$=tibotarsus length, $X_{33}$=shank length, and $X_{35}$=shank diameter. 7) The breed and age factors caused considerable variations in assessing the edible meat weight in live chicken. It seems however that the edible meat weight in live chicken can be estimated fairly accurately with optimum regression equations derived from various body shape measurements.

• Applied Biological Chemistry
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.145-166
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• 1975

The calcium balance study was carried out to determine the availability of calcium in different sources for chicks and laying hens. The sources of calcium were calcium carbonate (CC), dicalcium phosphate-dihydrate (DCPH), and dicalcium phosphate-anhydride (DCPA) for chicks and calcium carbonate (CC) and oyster shell (OS) for laying hens. The radioisotope dilution method was employed to measure the endogenous excreta calcium during the period of balance study following preliminary feeding. A. Experimental results with chicks: No significant difference was found among feed consumption of chicks fed diets containing different sources of calcium. Body weight gain of chicks was dependent upon the source of calcium. The gain decreased in the order of DCPH, DCPA and CC (P<0.01). The feed conversion efficiency in chicks fed DCPH was better than those in chicks fed CC or DCPA. The average tibia ash contents for chicks fed different sources of calcium were similar. The DCPH was superior to CC or DCPA regarding the calcium content in tibia ash. There were no significant differences among the average calcium contents in plasma trichloracetic acid filtrate in chicks irrespective of calcium sources. The mean apparent retention of calcium by chicks fed DCPH, CC and DCPA were 65.9, 64.0 and 59.9% respectively. The calcium to phosphorus ratios in tibia ash and plasma trichloracetic acid filtrate for chicks fed different sources of calcium were similar. The chicks fed DCPH showed the partition of endogenous excreta calcium in total excreta calcium as 35.6% which was higher than 31.0 or 31.4% for chicks fed CC or DCPA. The endogenous excreta calcium per day per chick in group fed DCPH, DCPA or CC were 17.2, 16.1 and 14.6mg respectively. The true retained calcium per day per chick in group fed DCPH were 109.9 mg which was higher than those observed with CC or DCPA group (P<0.01). The true retention of calcium by the birds fed diets containing DCPH, CC or DCPA were 78.1, 75.1 or 72.6% respectively. B. Experimental results with laying hens: The feed consumption, egg production and feed converion efficiency of laying hens fed diets containing different sources of calcium were similar. Calcium concentration in plasma trichloracetic acid filtrate in laying birds fed CC was equivalent to the value obtained by feeding OS. The apparent calcium retention by laying birds fed CC was 61.6% and it was significantly more than that of hens fed OS of 51.6% (P<0.05). The partition of endogenous excreta calcium in total excreta calcium of laying hens fed CC was 23.5% and this was higher than that of birds fed OS of 15.6%. The laying hens fed CC showed 310 mg of endogenous excreta calcium per day per bird while birds fed OS showed 261mg. The true retention of calcium by layers fed CC was 70.7% against 59.2% for birds fed OS (P<0.05).