Study on performance traits of laying hens with crossing the White Leghorn and the Rhode Island breeds

Review

Abstract

The current steady increase in the global population is accompanied by a dramatic growth in demand for food, whose satisfaction relies heavily on animal protein sources. Poultry farming is already mankind’s key source of protein. Changes in consumer habits combined with the negative impacts of climate change are posing new challenges to poultry breeding companies today. Certain traits properties relating to egg production among offspring groups resulting from the crossing of the White Leghorn and the Rhode Island breeds show improvements relative to the corresponding properties of pure-bred offspring. This literature review is aimed at summing up experiments focusing on White Leghorn and Rhode Island crosses in terms of the main traits properties relating to egg production. Experiments involving the crossing of the White Leghorn and Rhode Island breeds tend to occur mainly during pure-bred poultry breeding. Studies discussing the performance of groups of offspring of White Leghorn (WL) and Rhode Island (RI) breeds, without analysing physiological types of experiments, have been few and far between in the past 20 years. Most of the few such studies originate from countries of the third world focusing in most cases on matters of feeding. This is explained, for the most part, by the fact that in the current period of modern poultry farming, only the world’s top breeding companies are in possession of high performance Leghorn and Rhode lines and they seldom ever publish scientific papers allowing glimpse into breeders’ development or strategic activities of breeders.