Genetic trends of abdominal fat content in a male broiler chicken line.

Data of chickens from a broiler-breeding program were collected and used to determine the genetic trends of absolute and rela- tive abdominal fat content. The genetic trends were estimated by the regression of trait genetic value averages on hatch-years. Genetic val- ues from 32,485 individuals were used for regression analysis. The ge- netic trend estimate for absolute abdominal fat content was +0.39 g per year, indicating that abdominal fat deposition in the analyzed line, in ab- solute terms, tended to increase, making the existing excess fat deposi- tion in the broilers even worse. However, the genetic trend of relative abdominal fat content was not significant, indicating that there is no in- crease on abdominal fat content when it is corrected for body weight.