• Korean Journal of Poultry Science
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• v.48 no.4
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• pp.177-184
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• 2021

Sex identification in day-old chicks is essential in the poultry industry. Currently, the feather-sexing using a sex-linked inheritance is a chick sexing method used extensively in the poultry industry. For chicks produced by feather-sexing, all females are early-feathering (EF) chicks and all males are late-feathering (LF) chicks. Therefore, investigating the effects of EF and LF phenotypes on production traits of chickens is critical. The purpose of this study was to analyze and compare the production performance between EF and LF chickens in Korean native commercial chickens. The results showed that the survival rate of the EF chickens was significantly higher than that of the LF chickens, from hatching to 12 weeks of age (P<0.05), with the highest difference observed in females. However, no significant difference was observed in body weight between the EF and LF chickens at almost all ages. In addition, no significant difference was observed between in feed utility, such as average daily feed intake and feed conversion ratio, between the EF and LF groups. In conclusion, although the survival rate of early-feathering chickens was superior to that of late-feathering chickens, no significant difference was observed in growth performance and feed utility among Korean native chickens. The results suggest that production capacity is not influenced by feathering type in the establishment of a breeder structure and production system for feather-sexing Korean native chickens, which is valuable for the practical application of feather-sexing in the poultry industry.

• Korean Journal of Poultry Science
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• v.45 no.3
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• pp.155-165
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• 2018

Chicken feathers could be classified into early-feathering (EF) and late-feathering (LF) depending on the development and patterns of the wing and tail feathers. Currently, feather-sexing is a widely used chick sexing method in the industry. This study was carried out to suggest the method of classifying of EF and LF chicks to establish auto-sexing Korean native chicken (KNC) strains. The development and morphology of wing feathers and tail feathers in 856 KNCs from hatching to 55-days old were analyzed to classify EF and LF chicks. We also performed PCR analysis using K-specific gene primers to confirm the agreement between the phenotypes and genotypes of EF and LF chickens. In the results, the EF chicks had long primaries and coverts, and there was a significant difference in length between primaries and coverts. The LF chicks had shorter primaries and coverts than the EF chicks, and showed little difference in the length between primaries and coverts. LF chicks could be classified into four groups: LF-Less, LF-Scant, LF-Equal and LF-Reverse according to their wing feather patterns. EF chicks had 1.5 times longer primaries than LF chicks until they were 15-days old, but the lengths were almost the same at 50-days old. The tail feathers of the EF chicks were apparent at 5-days old, but those of the LF chicks were short and indefinite at that time. When EF and LF chicks were classified by the length of primaries being more or less than 9 mm, the classification accuracies for EF and LF chicks were 96.2% and 85.4%, respectively, compared to the PCR results. In conclusion, juvenile EF and LF KNC showed distinct differences in feather development and morphology, and could be easily distinguished at one day-old.

• Korean Journal of Poultry Science
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• v.48 no.1
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• pp.41-50
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• 2021

Although feather-sexing using sex-linked genes related to feather development is a widely used chick sexing method in the poultry industry, the feather-sexing method has yet to be used for Korean native chickens (KNCs). The purpose of this study was to construct a KNC feather-sexing line using early-feathering (EF) and late-feathering (LF) genes for industrial application. Using 557 reddish-brown KNCs as the basal flock, frequencies of the EF (k) and LF (K) genes were estimated to be 0.814 and 0.186, respectively. This indicating that it would be feasible to construct a feather-sexing line using this chicken group, and we accordingly constructed EF paternal and LF maternal lines. On the basis of test-cross for the selection of LF homozygous (KK) males in the maternal line, we confirmed that three of 40 chickens were homozygous males. The survival rate, body weight, days at first egg-laying, hen-day egg production, and egg weight were analyzed to compare the production performance of EF and LF chickens. The results revealed that EF chickens were characterized by a superior survival rate, whereas LF chickens were superior in terms of egg production rate. However, no differences between LF and EF chickens were detected with respect to other production performance parameters. In addition, assessment of the fitness of sexed chicks produced in the established KNC feather-sexing lines revealed that the accuracy of sexing was 98.6%. Collectively, these findings indicate the feasibility of constructing effective KNC feather-sexing lines with potential industrial application.

• Korean Journal of Poultry Science
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• v.46 no.4
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• pp.279-286
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• 2019

Currently, feather-sexing, which is based on differences in feather development at hatching, is a widely used chick sexing method in the poultry industry. For effective chicken feather-sexing, paternal early-feathering (EF) chickens and maternal late-feathering (LF) chickens must be bred. Therefore, it is critical to identify the effect of EF and LF patterns on production traits in chickens. Thus, the purpose of this study is to analyze and compare the production performances between 522 EF and 232 LF chickens in order to establish the Korean native chicken feather-sexing lines. The results showed that the survival rate of the LF group was significantly higher than that of the EF group from hatching to 52 weeks of age (P<0.05). Body weight, however, was not significantly different between the two groups at all ages. LF and EF groups did not significantly differ in age at first egg laying. However, the hen-day and hen-housed egg production of the LF group were significantly higher than those of EF group (P<0.01). No significant differences were found between the EF and LF groups in all egg quality indicators such as egg weight, eggshell color, albumin height and Haugh unit. Because the breeding target of Korean native commercial chicken is meat-type chicken, feather-sexing strains of Korean native chicken should be established using weighing-based paternal EF lines and laying-based maternal LF lines. Therefore, these results are critical for establishing desirable and effective feather-sexing strains.

• Korean Journal of Poultry Science
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• v.51 no.2
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• pp.65-71
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• 2024

The feather-sexing method is widely used commercially for chick sex identification. However, for feather-sexing to be industrially practical, the early-feathering (EF) and late-feathering (LF) genes must existed within the foundation stock, a suitable feather-sexing lines must be established, and the accuracy of sex identification by feather-sexing must be ensured. Therefore, this study introduces the method of constructing the Korean native chickens (KNC) feather-sexing lines using EF and LF genes and evaluates the effectiveness of feather sex determination on commercial chicks produced from the constructed KNC lines. The results showed that both EF and LF chickens existed within the foundation stock, with the frequency of LF genes ranging from 0 to 0.205. In feather-sexing line establishment, the paternal strain of the grandparent stock (GPS) was fixed as EF (kk) for both sexes, while the maternal strain was composed of males with LF homozygotes (Z^KZ^K) and females with EF (Z^kW). Thus, in the parent stock (PS), male breeder had EF (Z^kZ^k) and female breeder had LF (Z^KW), resulting in chicks produced from their crosses having LF (Z^KZ^k) for males and EF (Z^kW) for females, allowing sex determination based on feather development. Additionally, to evaluate the effectiveness of feather-sexing for the produced commercial chicks, a study was conducted on 1,000 samples of the produced chicks to investigate the concordance between vent-sexing and feather-sexing, showing a matching rate of 93.1%.