| | Sponsored Article The ISA Layer Breeding Company, part of the multi-species Hendrix Genetics Company, has recently announced that it is developing strains that will lay 500 first quality eggs per hen housed in one cycle. |
ISA (Institut de Selection Animale), with headquarters in the Netherlands, was founded in 2005 after the merger of ISA of France and Hendrix Poultry Breeders of Holland. Today ISA manages large North American and European -based layer gene pools consisting of ISA, Babcock, Shaver, Hisex, Bovans and Dekalb genetics.
At the time of the merger in 2005, ISA had been evaluating pure-line performance to 80 weeks of age for several years, and Hendrix Poultry Breeders in the Netherlands had operated a parallel program for over a decade. After the merger, the testing duration was extended to 100 weeks of age. As George Ansah, Senior Geneticist at ISA, comments: “The extended production cycle adopted in our tests is the real key to realize our mission to breed layers capable of laying 500 first quality eggs, because what we have learned from past observations is that birds that produce the best eggs at 60 weeks are definitely not always the birds that also produce the best eggs at an older age”.