Aiming to evaluate the productive performance of some commonly found in Egypt broiler breeders' strains (i.e. Arbor acres, Hubbard, Indian river, Cobb 500 and Ross 308), the current study was carried out at some commercial farms in three different governorates (North Sinai, Ismailia and Fayoum) in Egypt during the period from 2015 to 2019. Records of 99455 broiler parent females: Arbor Acres (23440 females), Hubbard (18800 females), Indian river (20623 females), Cobb 500 (12480 females) and Ross 308 broiler parents (24112 females) were collected and used in the present study.
Results and conclusions can be summarized as follow:
- genetic strains investigated in the recent study significantly differed in all studied traits;
- production phases affected all studied traits significantly; the decrease in egg production occurred at the late phase of production (i.e. after 180 days of egg production and this consequently affected profits;
- body weight correlated significantly with most of important production traits, and any deviation from targeted body weight could negatively affect whole production performance of broiler breeder hens;
- management conditions and decisions taken affected the depletion time of the flock;
- additionally, there is a need to study more than one flock (farm) on a commercial scale to judge the superiority or persistency of a broiler breeder genetic strain
- although, depletion of the flock was at 58th week of age, Cobb 500 broiler breeders considered as the only genotype that actually override its genetic potential, this may be attributed to the optimal management conditions of these birds.