Andreas Mueller

I. INTRODUCTIONOver the last few decades, laying hen performance potential has largely been improved by genetic selection: egg production increased from 11.8 to 21.0 kg eggs per hen housed, FCR reduced from 3.29 to 1.96, mortality from 19.1 to 5.6% and body weight from 2.42 to 2.20 kg between 1970 and 2000 (Jeroch, 2011). Production cycles of 100 weeks without moulting will become commercially fea ...