INTERVIEW 54 FEED & ADDITIVE MAGAZINE February 2024 Dr. Hugo Romero, Executive Manager and Global Poultry Technology Lead at NOVUS: “Key factors in hatchability from fertile eggs are eggshell and egg quality (structure and cleanliness), egg disinfection, and egg handling and storage, incubation conditions (temperature, turning, humidity, ventilation), and, of course, disease. In fertility, the key factors are male nutrition and management. Males may be fertile, but they need to be able to mate with the female. Male overweight, size, or even female feathering issues may decrease mating success.” WHY DOES HATCHABILITY DECREASE AND HOW CAN IT BE INCREASED? Hatchability has become a major concern for the broiler breeder industry in the United States. Presenting on this decline in hatchability at TECHTalks at the International Production and Processing Expo (IPPE) 2024, Novus' executive manager and global poultry technology lead, Dr. Hugo Romero points out that similar problems have been reported from other regions. In his presentation, Romero examined the potential causes of this phenomenon and how adjustments to the ration can help combat it, and also evaluated the effects of amino acids and trace minerals on breeder fertility and chick development. Based on his presentation at TECHTalks, we asked Dr. Hugo Romero about the details of the decline in breeding hatchability and methods of combating it. Romero shares the details for our readers. Dr. Romero, what do hatchability and fertility mean? What is the difference between the two and why are these important in poultry production? Let’s first consider some concepts. We have absolute values like number of eggs, number of settable eggs, and number of chicks hatched per housed hen. We also have percentage values like egg production, hatching eggs, and hatchability. Hatchability refers to the percentage of chickens hatched from the total eggs that we set in an incubator, which enables us to evaluate the hatchery’s performance. However, when one analyzes the unhatched eggs and sees that some of them are unfertile, one should correct for them; this new corrected value is the hatchability from fertile. Sometimes we do not make it clear, and we could have the flock’s fertility as a confounding factor in the term hatchability. Now, fertility refers to the percentage of eggs that are fertilized. We know that all hatched chicks and embryo mortality were from fertile eggs. The criti-
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