Groupe Grimaud subsidiary Hubbard has reported the results of using scanners to better select breeding poultry.
The firm, which supplies day-old broiler breeding stock to farmers all over the world, said scanner imaging technology had made it possible to measure carcase composition and precisely determine related elements such as meat, muscles, fat, viscera and bones. This technology had greatly accelerated the company’s genetic advances of its products, it said.
The group has four scanners in continuous use: two in the USA and two in France.
Hubbard said after three years of use within the R&D programme across the full range of conventional and Premium Hubbard products, the results are starting to be seen in concrete form in the field, and will be accelerated in 2017. “In the first instance, there has been a significant increase in meat yield results,” said a spokesman.
Use of the scanner has also made it possible to maintain and improve Hubbard’s advances in terms of leg quality, foot pad lesions and hock burn, as well as meat quality.
The tool has enabled the company to develop a new Hubbard male range: the new Hubbard M22 male, selected using this tool. “If we compare its performance with the other males we can observe results of 1.5% additional yield on average, while also retaining the desired meat qualities,” a spokesman said. “The genetic potential of this new Hubbard male has been shown to be very significant.”