SELECTION FOR 8-WEEK BODY-WEIGHT IN 2 RANDOM-BRED CHICKEN POPULATIONSUNDER ALTERED WATER TO FEED RATIOS .2. FEED-INTAKE, WATER-INTAKE, ANDABDOMINAL FAT LEVELS

Four experiments were conducted to investigate feed and water intake, feed efficiency, and abdominal fat levels of six lines of chickens dev eloped from two randombred control populations following selection for high 8-wk BW under high (1.6%), low (.2%), and normal (.4%) dietary s alt selection environments. The Athens-Canadian Randombreds (AC) and A thens Randombreds (ARB) served as base populations for development of the six lines. Progeny from these lines were evaluated in the first, f ifth, sixth, and seventh generations in Experiments 1, 2, 3, and 4, re spectively. In Experiment 1, abdominal fat levels were shown to be inv ersely related to dietary salt level. The lowest abdominal fat level w as observed in birds fed the 1.6% salt diet and the highest abdominal fat level in birds fed the .2% salt diet. Birds receiving the normal ( .4%) salt diet had intermediate abdominal fat levels. In Experiments 2 , 3, and 4, selected lines were exposed to different dietary salt leve ls to measure both line and dietary salt response patterns. Significan t (P < .05) differences were observed between genotypes (AC vs ARB) an d between dietary salt treatments for BW, feed and water intake, and w ater to feed ratio. However, there was no evidence of genetic change b etween lines in abdominal fat level as a result of selection under dif ferent salt environments.