The effects of upgrading and intersect cross-breeding strategies on the geese economic traits

Routine, upgrading, and intersect cross-breeding strategies are three methods frequently used in poultry breeding. But, till now, comparative assessment of the effects on the improvement of geese economic traits with these strategies is largely unknown. Here, using Carlos goose and Zi goose, these three strategies were employed and compared. The main economic traits, including egg production capability, egg quality, growth performance, meat production capability, and down feather production capability were all measured systematically. For egg production capability and egg quality, the upgrading group had the highest egg-laying rate, and the intersect group had the biggest egg size compared with the routine group (p 0.05). No significant difference was observed in the egg shape index (p 0.05). For meat production capability and down feather production capability, no significant difference was observed (p 0.05). We found that different cross-breeding strategies had different superiority on economic traits. The economic value of each economic trait should be taken into account so that an optimized cross-breeding strategy could be made to get the most of the benefits.