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

Table 6 Least square means for feed efficiency and growth traits for 8340 tom turkeys of groups ranked high, medium and low for residual intake and body weight gain and Tukey multiple comparisons within a row

Trait	Residual intake and body weight gain group¹			P-value²
	High	Medium	Low
Residual intake and body weight gain	1.68^a	0.20^b	−1.81^c	< 0.001
Body weight 16 weeks, kg	13.34^a	13.63^b	13.90^c	< 0.001
Body weight 20 weeks, kg	20.75^a	20.66^a	20.33^b	< 0.001
Feed intake, kg	18.86^a	19.57^b	20.41^c	< 0.001
Body weight gain, kg	7.41^a	7.03^b	6.43^c	< 0.001
Metabolic mid-weight, kg	1.49	1.50	1.49	0.06
Feed conversion ratio	2.57^a	2.84^b	3.44^c	< 0.001
Residual feed intake, kg	−1.20^a	−0.01^b	1.29^c	< 0.001
Residual body weight gain, kg	0.75^a	0.05^b	−0.80^c	< 0.001
Residual intake and body weight gain 2	1.27^a	0.09^b	−1.36^c	< 0.001
Residual intake and body weight gain 3	1.25^a	0.10^b	−1.35^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 intake and body weight gain groups created by dividing the dataset equally into three groups based on residual intake and body weight gain; ²Significance of the group effect.

ISSN: 1297-9686