Recent studies and future expectations in broiler breeding in Türkiye

Abstract

Turkey ranks in the top 10 in broiler production in the world. Almost all of the genetic material used in production in our country is provided by commercial international breeding companies. In order to reduce complete external dependency in this field and to have improved genetic stocks, broiler breeding studies have been restarted in Turkey since 2010. The studies, which started with a project (TÜBİTAK 109O334) to produce slow-growing broiler parents, have been put into practice by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, General Directorate of Agricultural Research and Policies.

In 2015, with the purchase of 2 sire and 3 dam pure line parent material from an international breeding company, the studies were shifted to the fast growing broiler parent production and breeding field at Eskişehir Transitional Zone Agricultural Research Institute (EGKTAE). Studies were carried out in the fields of reproduction, selection, grand parent and parent production in pure lines between 2015-2025. On the other hand, the parents obtained were shared with the private sector. Doctoral and master's theses, international and national publications were made by utilizing the existing pure lines related to breeding studies. The material used in broiler breeding studies was registered as Anadolu-T. Within the scope of research and development studies, a device that provides automation of individual feed utilization test was developed at EGKTAE and started to be used in breeding studies. When the appropriate reproduction processes of the existing material are carried out, there is a potential for 25-30% of the genetic material used in broiler production in our country to be provided from Anadolu-T parents. In particular, in terms of epidemic diseases and pandemics seen in humans and animals, security risks and reducing external dependency, protecting the material and developing similar characteristics to commercial genotypes are important in terms of food safety.

In this report, some characteristics of the Anadolu-T broiler parent line and breeding studies carried out are summarized.