Yesterday, today and tomorrow of the broiler breeding industry

WenjieR2C-，

 Chief Scientist of National Broiler Industry Technology SystemR2C-，

Leader of Expert Group of National Broiler Genetic Improvement ProgramR2C-，

Researcher, Beijing Institute of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Medicine, Chinese Academy of Agricultural SciencesR2C-，

Chicken is the world's largest meat production and consumption product.

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Figure 1 World meat structure (%, FAO)R2C-，

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Figure 2 China's meat structure (%, FAO)R2C-，

White-feather broiler is the breed with the lowest feed-to-meat ratio, the highest degree of large-scale breeding, and the highest degree of foreign dependence among all domestic livestock and poultry breeds.

1.

Domestic chickens were domesticated from Asian jungle pheasants 7000-10000 years ago, and their domestication history can be traced back to more than 1000 BC.

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Figure 3 Red Rock Fowl (Dorian Anderson, 05 Jan 2020, Phetchaburi, Thailand.

(1) The breeding process of foreign broiler chickensR2C-，

Before the 1930s, colony selection and pure line breeding without genealogical records were carried out.

With the invention of the self-closing egg laying box in the 1930s, egg production performance was selected based on individual egg production records; in the 1930s and 1950s, using the corn two-hybrid technology for reference, the use of heterosis was introduced into chicken breeding, which quickly replaced pure line breeding.

From the 1960s to the 1980s, the main selections were easy-to-measure traits, such as egg production, hatchability, growth rate, and feed conversion rate.

(2) my country's broiler breeding processR2C-，

In the middle of the 19th century, my country's local chickens once ranked the world's leading level in egg production and meat production performance.

From the end of the 19th century to the 1930s, my country's eggs and chicken were important export products.

From 1983 to 2015, the yellow feather broilers adopted the north-to-south breeding model, making full use of the differences in resources such as the climate and ecological environment, feed, manpower, and rearing technology between the north and the south.

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Figure 4 Kangdaer yellow chicken 128 supporting line (Nong09 new variety Zhengzi No.

In the mid-1980s, the Beijing Poultry Breeding Company, a joint venture established by China, the United States, and Thailand, introduced pure Avian lines from the United States and started the local breeding of white feather broilers in my country.

In 2009, the National Broiler Industry Technology System established a White Feather Broiler Breeding Cooperative Group to carry out research on my country's white feather broiler breeding strategy, and organize and promote my country's powerful enterprises to carry out white feather broiler breeding work.

2.

(1) Foreign developmentR2C-，

The progress of genetic selection and breeding since the late 1950s has laid the foundation for modern chicken production and promoted the development of egg and chicken production in the direction of specialization.

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Figure 5 Broiler breeding systemR2C-，

　　In order to meet the market's demand for chicken quality and animal welfare, some European countries also have a small number of slow-speed and colored-feather broiler products that are similar to my country's yellow-feather broilers.
They are now Hubbard JA, Rowan Ranger, Sasso Label Rouge, etc.
from Aviagen.
They are all slow-speed chicken breeds.
In addition, European countries also produce different types of slow-speed broiler chickens through simple crosses between fast-speed chickens and slow-speed chickens.
Label Rouge (red label chicken) takes meat quality as the breeding goal, and its output accounts for about 15% of the total French chicken production.
Together with other types of slow chickens, slow chickens account for 24% of French chicken production.
The Dutch slow-speed chicken has developed rapidly, mainly considering meat quality and animal welfare, and the output has reached more than 40% of the chicken output.
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　　(2) Domestic developmentR2C-，

　　1.
Yellow Feather BroilerR2C-，

　　Yellow-feather broiler is also called three-yellow chicken, high-quality chicken, originally referred to as yellow feather, yellow skin, yellow shin, chicken with a slower growth rate and excellent meat flavor.
Now refers to the local chicken breeds listed in the "Chinese Livestock and Poultry Genetic Resources Chronicles · Poultry Chronicles" and the "Livestock Breeds Chronicles" of various provinces, cities, and autonomous regions, as well as broiler breeds and breeds (supporting lines) containing the blood of these local breeds , Including all broiler chickens of different feather colors, such as yellow feather, hemp feather and black feather.
At present, the yellow feather broiler breeds used in my country's production are all independently cultivated breeds, and the number of cultivated breeds is the largest among all livestock and poultry breeds.
It is a successful example of transforming the advantages of local breed resources into product advantages.
By 2020, 59 yellow feather broiler breeds have been approved by the country, which can be further divided into three types: fast, medium and slow according to growth rate and age on the market to meet diversified market demands.
In recent years, as the epidemic prevention requirements have become more stringent, various localities have formulated "no-living" policies.
In addition to the promotion of the consumption of slaughter products by the new "Internet + express" business model, the market for yellow feather broiler slaughter will become the general trend in the future, and the corresponding breed cultivation will also be trending.
Development of slaughter-type varieties.
After selection and verification by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, in 2020, there will be 17 national broiler core breeding farms and 16 improved breeding bases.
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　　2.
White Feather BroilerR2C-，

　　Before the outbreak of avian influenza in the United States in 2014, more than 95% of my country's white feather broiler ancestor breeders imported from the United States.
Since then, with the development of bird flu epidemics around the world and the adjustment of my country's customs import policy, my country has successively introduced white feather broiler ancestor breeders from Britain, France, Spain, Poland, New Zealand and other countries.
my country introduces 800,000 to 1.
2 million sets of ancestral breeders annually, and the annual introduction amount is about 40 million U.
S.
dollars.
In 2019, there were 1.
39 million ancestral white-feather broilers in the country, 51.
43 million parent-generation stocks, 4.
7 billion commercial chicks were produced, and the output value of white-feather broilers was about 150 billion yuan per year.
Large-scale white feather broiler breeding companies in my country include Shandong Yisheng Breeding Livestock and Poultry Co.
, Ltd.
, Fujian Shengnong Development Co.
, Ltd.
, and Shandong Minhe Animal Husbandry Co.
, Ltd.
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　　3.
Small white feather broilerR2C-，

　　There is another type of broiler in my country's broiler production-small white feather broiler.
A typical small white-feather broiler is a broiler with a white-feather broiler male cock as the male parent and a high-yield brown-shell layer as the female parent.
The commercial generation has white feathers all over the body, occasionally black or red spots, yellow beak, shin and toe, and white skin.
Commercial chicks of small white feather broilers have low cost, and their growth rate and meat quality are between fast and large yellow feather broilers and white feather broilers.
They are suitable for processing traditional chicken products such as grilled chickens.
A prominent problem in the production of small white-feather broilers is the irregular seed production.
In 2018, the broiler WOD168 matching line was approved by the National Animal and Poultry Genetic Resources Committee, marking the first step towards standardization in the production of small white-feather broilers.
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　　3.
Problems and gapsR2C-，

　　(1) White Feather Broiler BreedingR2C-，

　　Compared with the international advanced level of white feather broiler breeding, my country's independent white feather broiler breeding time is short, the accumulation of high-productivity genetic materials is weak, the application of new technologies such as molecular breeding is insufficient, and there is a big gap in the research and development of germ-derived disease purification technology and detection products.
details as follows:R2C-，

　　1.
Breeding materials.
Multinational companies have a series of excellent strains with fast growth and high meat production rate, and through the merger and reorganization of broiler, layer and other breeding companies, the materials and genes are further enriched, which provides a guarantee for the breeding of new breeds; my country's white feather broiler breeding resources The breeding foundation is weak, and the quantity of good breeding materials is small.
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　　2.
Breeding technology.
Compared with international multinational companies with hundreds of years of breeding experience, my country's white feather broiler breeding started late, and there is a big gap between the research and application of the balanced breeding technology between growth and reproduction and the international advanced level.
The application of new technologies such as genome breeding is not high; there is a lack of high-throughput phenotypic intelligent and accurate determination technology, and the application of automatic data collection and transmission is low.
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　　3.
Purification technology of provenance diseases.
Large-scale international poultry breeding companies have adopted effective purification measures for vertical transmission of diseases such as avian leukemia and pullorum, which has significantly improved the competitiveness of their products.
The purification of avian leukemia and pullorum is a shortcoming hindering the development of my country's poultry industry, and the detection kits are heavily dependent on imports.
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　　(2) Yellow Feather Broiler BreedingR2C-，

　　my country's yellow feather broiler breeding and production ranks among the world's leading levels.
However, the number of breeding companies is large, the scale is uneven, the overall technical strength is weak, the application of advanced breeding technology is insufficient, and the breeding facilities are relatively backward; there is a certain degree of repeated breeding, with obvious characteristics, excellent performance, and large market share.
There are few core varieties; For a long time, feather color, body shape and other relevant traits suitable for live poultry sales have been used as breeding goals, which cannot meet the market demand for concentrated slaughter and chilled products under the new situation.
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　　my country's local chicken breeds are rich in resources, and under long-term, complex ecological and socio-economic conditions, many excellent genetic characteristics have been formed.
However, for a long time, there has been a lack of in-depth research on the characteristics of germplasm resources, inadequate variety resource investigation and evaluation of variety characteristics, and insufficient information support for analysis and evaluation.
In addition, the establishment of a dynamic monitoring system for variety resources is insufficient, and the evaluation of the characteristics of genetic resources with strong adaptability, high yield and high quality is incomplete and unsystematic, resulting in a serious shortage of excavation and utilization of the excellent characteristics of local varieties and hindering the development of local genetic resources.
The process of protection, development and utilization has affected the production level of our country's poultry industry, the market competitiveness of poultry products, and the sustainable development of the poultry industry.
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　　4.
Development direction of the "14th Five-Year Plan"R2C-，

　　(1) Accelerating the cultivation of domestic white-feather broiler breed sources should adhere to the policy of combining introduction and breeding with ourselves as the mainstay.
Maintaining proper imports and combining introduction and breeding is conducive to the healthy development of my country's white feather broiler breeding industry.
However, in terms of variety access, domestic and foreign varieties should be treated equally.
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　　(2) Improving the carcass quality of yellow feather broilers and the level of standardized scale breeding.
With the in-depth promotion of the "no-live" policy throughout the country, the slaughter of yellow feather broilers has become an irreversible trend.
Yellow feather broiler breeding should pay more attention to carcass appearance and quality.
Compared with white-feather broilers, yellow-feather broilers overemphasize the characteristics of regional demand, with many varieties and types, low market share, and small enterprise scale.
The problems of standardization and scale breeding should be continued to increase the market share of core breeds and become bigger and stronger.
Seed industry enterprises.
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　　(3) Strengthen the research and application of precision breeding technologies such as intelligentization and phenotyping.
At present, the determination of broiler chicken traits in China is still based on manual observation and manual measurement.
According to the precise requirements of broiler breeding for the amount and accuracy of phenotypic data, it needs to be in 5G With the significant improvement of transmission and big data analysis capabilities, vigorously promote the development and application of intelligent non-destructive measurement technology and equipment in the core broiler breeding farm to improve the accuracy of phenotypic big data such as meat production, fat reduction, feed remuneration, and egg production performance Acquiring ability; based on multiple omics methods such as genome, transcriptome, and metabolome, combined with gene editing technology, systematically analyze the genetic mechanisms of muscle growth and development, fat deposition, gender differentiation and development, body nutrition and metabolism, and appearance trait formation, and unearth The functional genes or molecular elements that affect the important economic traits of broiler chickens provide a powerful basic guarantee for the application of molecular technology for accelerating the improvement of broiler chicken breeds.
Accelerate the application of whole-genome selection technology in broiler breeding.
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　　(4) Strengthen the mining and innovative utilization of chicken germplasm resources, comprehensively evaluate the genetic characteristics of local chicken breeds in my country, excavate good genetic resources such as reproduction, feed conversion efficiency, meat quality, resistance, etc.
, and use modern biotechnology methods to have good meat quality , Flavour characteristics and resistant local chicken breeds are used as materials to cultivate excellent new chicken strains and genetic materials that meet the needs of market and industrial development, turn resource advantages into market advantages, promote the protection, development and utilization of chicken genetic resources in my country, and promote The independent development of the chicken breeding industry in my country is of great significance.
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