Table 7.
Hatching performance of Chinese Yellow broiler breeders fed diets with different iron content.
| Dietary Fe content, mg/kg |
P-value1 | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Variable | 44 | 58 | 72 | 86 | 100 | SEM1 | Fe level | Linear | Quadratic |
| Hatching egg weight, g | 62.5 | 62.4 | 62.3 | 62.2 | 61.5 | 0.459 | 0.571 | ||
| Fertility rate, % | 94.0 | 97.2 | 96.0 | 94.7 | 92.7 | 1.10 | 0.095 | ||
| Proportion of live embryos | 95.7 | 96.2 | 97.4 | 95.8 | 94.1 | 1.48 | 0.635 | ||
| Hatchability of fertilized eggs, % | 82.4 | 84.0 | 89.4 | 87.6 | 83.5 | 2.06 | 0.090 | ||
| Hatchability of live embryos, % | 83.8 | 87.7 | 93.2 | 91.5 | 90.0 | 1.49 | 0.004 | 0.014 | 0.001 |
| Hatching weight of chicks, g | 42.1 | 41.9 | 41.4 | 41.7 | 40.5 | 0.461 | 0.140 | ||
1
Standard error of the mean (n = 6), linear and quadratic contrasts examined only when Fe level was significant.