Abstract
Simple SummaryEarly determination of sex of poultry specimens plays a major role in the design and implementation of conservation programs for endangered avian species. This information can be used to tailor noninvasive early specific models to determine sex, fitting the characteristics of local poultry populations, as traditional methods may not be effective given the implicit diversity of local breeds and their varieties or strains. The English method, down feather coloration, wing fan, and behavior/coping styles displayed by the individuals can be used to accurately sort animals according to their sex, regardless of the variety of the individuals.Sex determination is key to designing endangered poultry population conservation and breeding programs when sex distribution departs from Hardy–Weinberg equilibrium. A total of 112 Utrerana chickens (28 per variety, partridge, black, white, and franciscan) were selected for hatching day sexing. Sex assignation was performed through 10 methods. Three sex assignment criteria comprised criteria found in literature, opposite criteria to that in the literature, and composite criteria combining methods reporting the highest predictive success from the previous ones. This study aims to determine which method combinations may more successfully determine sex across the four varieties of Utrerana endangered hen breed to tailor noninvasive early specific models to determine sex in local chicken populations. Although the explanatory power of the three assignation criteria is equal (75%), assignation criteria 2 resulted to be the most efficient as it correctly assigns males more frequently. Only methods 3 (English method), 5 (general down feathers coloration), 7 (wing fan), and 10 (behavior/coping styles) reported significant differences regardless of the variety, hence, are appropriate for early sexing. Sex confirmation was performed at 1.5 months old. Identifying sex proportions enhances genetic management tasks in endangered populations, complementing more standardized techniques, which may result inefficient given the implicit diversity found in local populations.
Highlights
The poultry industry is, in terms of the production of local breeds in a sustainable way, a currently booming sector [1,2,3]
The determination of the sex of individuals is a key element in the design and planning of conservation and breeding programs [5,6,7] for threatened or endangered species or breeds for which sex distribution may be biased or what is the same, whose characteristics may depart from a Hardy–Weinberg equilibrium [8]
The second assignation criteria was carried out considering the opposite criteria as that reported by bibliography for each of the methods, that is if bibliography interpreted a sign in a certain chick as male determinant, we considered that animal a female and vice versa
Summary
The poultry industry is, in terms of the production of local breeds in a sustainable way, a currently booming sector [1,2,3]. The pressure to meet the growing demands for poultry products (meat and eggs) has led to the implementation and improvement of new techniques and work tools to improve productivity, such as the sexing of chickens in farms [4], as early in the life of the individuals as possible. This allows sex segregation and the withdrawal of those individuals without zootechnical interest from the production cycle (e.g., males in egg layer farms), with the consequent economic and logistical benefit that this implies for the poultry industry. The eggs eggs used used in in the the study study were were obtained obtained from from aa total total of of 68
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