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

Table 5 Least square means for feed efficiency and growth traits for 8340 tom turkeys of groups ranked high, medium and low for residual body weight gain and Tukey multiple comparisons within a row

Trait	Residual body weight gain group¹			P-value²
	High	Medium	Low
Residual body weight gain, kg	0.85^a	0.06^b	−0.91^c	< 0.001
Body weight 16 weeks, kg	13.10^a	13.67^b	14.09^c	< 0.001
Body weight 20 weeks, kg	20.84^a	20.78^a	20.12^b	< 0.001
Feed intake, kg	19.52^a	19.75^b	19.56^ab	0.01
Body weight gain, kg	7.73^a	7.11^b	6.03^c	< 0.001
Metabolic mid-weight, kg	1.49	1.50	1.49	0.19
Feed conversion ratio	2.54^a	2.80^b	3.52^c	< 0.001
Residual feed intake, kg	−0.77^a	−0.07^b	0.83^c	< 0.001
Residual intake and body weight gain	1.50^a	0.11^b	−1.61^c	< 0.001
Residual intake and body weight gain 2	1.24^a	0.09^b	−1.32^c	< 0.001
Residual intake and body weight gain 3	1.01^a	0.08^b	−1.09^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 body weight gain groups created by dividing the dataset equally into three groups based on residual body weight gain; ²significance of the group effect.

ISSN: 1297-9686