Assessment of residual body weight gain and residual intake and body weight gain as feed efficiency traits in the turkey (Meleagris gallopavo)

Table 4 Least square means for feed efficiency and growth traits for 8340 tom turkeys of groups ranked high, medium and low for residual feed intake and Tukey multiple comparisons within a row

Trait	Residual feed intake group¹			P-value²
	Low	Medium	High
Residual feed intake, kg	−1.38^a	−0.10^b	1.48^c	< 0.001
Body weight 16 weeks, kg	13.65	13.60	13.61	0.50
Body weight 20 weeks, kg	20.51	20.61	20.62	0.11
Feed intake, kg	18.16^a	19.51^b	21.16^c	< 0.001
Body weight gain, kg	6.86^a	7.01^b	7.00^b	< 0.001
Metabolic mid-weight, kg	1.49	1.49	1.50	0.66
Feed conversion ratio	2.78^a	2.88^b	3.20^c	< 0.001
Residual body weight gain, kg	0.43^a	0.06^b	−0.49^c	< 0.001
Residual intake and body weight gain	1.44^a	0.14^b	−1.57^c	< 0.001
Residual intake and body weight gain 2	0.96^a	0.10^b	−1.07^c	< 0.001
Residual intake and body weight gain 3	1.19^a	0.10^b	−1.30^c	< 0.001

^a,b,cWithin a row, means with different superscript letters differ for multiple comparisons according to Tukey test (P < 0.05); ¹residual feed intake groups created by dividing the dataset equally into three groups based on residual feed intake; ²significance of the group effect.

ISSN: 1297-9686