Matthias Schmutz

BackgroundEgg quality has received more attention due to increased demands for safety and high-quality eggs by consumers. Internal egg quality involves functional, aesthetic and microbiological properties of the egg yolk and albumen. Internal inclusions (blood and meat spots) in the egg have been recognized as quality defects since 1899 [1]. In addition to being an aesthetic and ethical problem, t ...

IntroductionCrossbreeding is a standard practice in poultry breeding programmes as a way of exploiting heterosis. However, there is no consensus on the most effective way to maximize the genetic response in crossbred commercial animals (Besbes and Ducrocq, 2003). Furthermore, the goal of breeding is not to maximise heterosis, but to maximise overall profitability in the commercial cross, the paren ...

Introduction The primary poultry breeding industry is under a continuously concentration process and nowadays there are only a few breeding companies which supply the world market. With the world­wide distribution of stocks, the major poultry breeders have to breed commercial layers that perform adequately in a wide variety of systems, ranging from large-intensive cage units to free- range ma ...