Creation of autosex chicken breeds for organic poultry farming

Recently, the demand for organic products has been increasing in the world. Organic poultry farming requires additional costs due to the extensive method of poultry housing, low planting density, availability of paddocks and other requirements for production of organic products. Therefore, creation of specialized breeds is especially relevant today. The paper presents the experience of creating an autosex population of the Leningrad Golden-Gray (LZS) in the bioresource collection “Genetic collection of rare and endangered breeds of chickens” RRIFAGB - Branch of the L.K. Ernst Federal Research Center for Animal Husbandry. The accuracy of separation by sex of day-old chickens reaches 98%. To create autosex chicken breed, we used breeds and populations of the bioresource collection that have marker genes of plumage color linked to the gender in the genotype. To obtain the breed status, a genome-wide study of the LZS population was conducted. Assessment of the genome homozygosity level showed compliance with the average level characteristic of consolidated groups. The study of genetic variability characterizes the population of LZS as numerous. The inbreeding coefficient of LZS chickens is at a safe level and is a consequence of intensive selection. As a result, an autosex population of LZS was created and tested, which meets the conditions for obtaining the status of a breed and allows to meet the increased requirements of organic poultry farming in the best way. The expediency of using autosex breeds for organic poultry farming has been 478 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, agrarian Series, 2021, vol. 59, no. 4 рр. 477–487 substantiated by saving feed and growing areas. The principles of creating an autosex breed from the genetic material of gene pool herds can be applied in other breeding programs.