Abstract
Long-term selection for low juvenile body weight has resulted in a line of chickens where sexual maturity is retarded or prevented because of anorexia.Ad libitum-fed pullets which had not commenced egg production by 240 days of age were randomly assigned to be force-fed or fedad libitum. Increasing food intake via force-feeding caused a significantly greater proportion of females to commence egg production than was noted forad libitum-fed controls. Moreover, of those pullets that commenced lay, age at onset was significantly earlier in those force-fed than in those fedad libitum.
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This research was supported in part by BARD Project US-675-83C.
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Zelenka, D.J., Dunnington, E.A., Cherry, J.A. et al. Anorexia and sexual maturity in female white rock chickens. I. Increasing the feed intake. Behav Genet 18, 383–387 (1988). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01260938
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01260938