Abstract:

The study was aimed to reveal the rule of growth and development and meat performance in Xiang White goose. 100 healthy Xiang White geese (50 male and 50 female) were selected and weighed during 0 to 12 weeks of age for study the growth and development by using Logistic model. 8 geese in each gender were slaughtered at age of 12-week and the body size index and meat yield performance were measured. The results showed as follows:① Xiang White goose grew rapidly in 1 to 6 weeks, and the increase of body weight was relatively stable during 7 to 12 weeks. After 4 weeks of age, the body weight of male goose were significantly (P<0.05) or extremely significantly (P<0.01) higher than the female. The fitting rates of Logistic model were over 0.988 in both male and female goose. The inflection of growth curves of female goose was at age of 5 weeks, and the male was 5.2 weeks. The correlation coefficient between the body weights at age of 4 weeks and 12 weeks were 0.512,0.561 in male and female goose, respectively (P<0.01).②The body length, keel length, tibia length and half-length diving of male goose at age of 12 weeks were significantly higher than the female (P<0.05).③The live body weight of male goose at age of 12 weeks was significantly greater than the female (P<0.05). ④The slaughter rate, eviscerated percentage, breast muscle rate, leg muscle rate of Xiang White goose were 88.25%, 67.93%, 13.03% and 13.76%, respectively. In conclusion, Xiang White goose grew fast, and had a good performance of meat production. The growth and development, body size and slaughter performance of male goose were better than the female.

Key words: Xiang White goose; growth cruve; body measurement; meat performance