The pattern of body growth and intestinal development of female Chinese native geese from 1 to 10 weeks of age

Abstract

ABSTRACT The aim of this study was to investigate the pattern of body growth and intestinal development of female Chinese native geese from 1 to 10 weeks of age. At weekly intervals, from hatch through 10 weeks of age, ten geese were sampled to measure the absolute and relative weight and length of the intestinal segments and overall intestine of geese. The body weight of Bertalanffy (R 2 = 0.989), Gompertz (R 2 = 0.990), Logistic (R 2 = 0.980) and Richards (R 2 = 0.982) models showed an increase in the asymptotes at 1–10 weeks old, while the inflection points were at 30.53, 28.56, and 25.59 d, respectively. The relative weight and length of the intestinal segments and overall intestine were decreased linearly (P < 0.01), while the absolute weight and length of the intestinal segments and overall intestine were increased linearly (P < 0.01) during 1–7 weeks old, but significantly decreased (P < 0.01) during 8–10 weeks old, suggesting that the intestinal system was developing rapidly at the starter period based on the intestinal weight and length, but was declining at the later period. The knowledge of growth curve and intestinal development pattern could provide some useful information on the optimum management practices and breeding strategies in geese production.