Leveraging ultrasonic-derived phenotypes and estimated breeding value to improve abdominal fat weight prediction in chickens throughout the egg laying period

Abdominal fat (AF) in hens impacts egg production and may reflect poor feed efficiency, meaning that dynamic monitor of AF changes facilitate to optimize feeding management and production efficiency. This study estimated hens’ AF weight among whole laying period through fitting vivo phenotypes by te...

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Main Authors: Penghao Li, Zhengda Li, Fan Ying, Dan Zhu, Dawei Liu, Xianyi Song, Jie Wen, Guiping Zhao, Bingxing An
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier 2025-08-01
Series:Smart Agricultural Technology
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Online Access:http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2772375525001455
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author Penghao Li
Zhengda Li
Fan Ying
Dan Zhu
Dawei Liu
Xianyi Song
Jie Wen
Guiping Zhao
Bingxing An
author_facet Penghao Li
Zhengda Li
Fan Ying
Dan Zhu
Dawei Liu
Xianyi Song
Jie Wen
Guiping Zhao
Bingxing An
author_sort Penghao Li
collection DOAJ
description Abdominal fat (AF) in hens impacts egg production and may reflect poor feed efficiency, meaning that dynamic monitor of AF changes facilitate to optimize feeding management and production efficiency. This study estimated hens’ AF weight among whole laying period through fitting vivo phenotypes by ten machine learning techniques (including generalized linear model, GLM; multiple linear regression, MLR; ridge regression, RR; LASSO; elastic net, EN; k nearest neighbours, KNN; SVM biased linear and Gaussian kernel; Random forests, RF and XGBoost). Consistent protocols were applied to all phenotypic measurements to minimize batch effects across five laying stages (8 traits: abdominal fat thickness (AFT), keel length (KL), breast width (BW), pubic bone width (PBW), body slope length (BSL), live weight (LW), keel-pubic length (KPL), and abdominal fat weight (AFW). The stepwise backwards variables selection was conducted to rule out the possible bias of multicollinearity between independent variables and AFW. While, AFT measured by ultrasound improved the predictive ability of all the models (R² of KNN showed highest increase of 12.35 %). Moreover, we also evaluated the contribution of AF estimate breeding values (EBVs) to fitting model performance. When incorporating EBVs of AFW as extra independent variables, all methods’ predictive ability had increased by an average of 15.71 %, especially KNN (27.2 %). For muliple laying periods, the EN model showed the best performance at 26 and 35 weeks, with an average R² of 0.928, MAE of 6.709, RMSE of 9.862, and MAPE of 9.660. The KNN model performed best at 28, 31, and 43 weeks, with an average R² of 0.918, MAE of 9.273, RMSE of 12.348, and MAPE of 17.240. These findings underscore the feasibility of accurately prediction of hens'AF through fitting appropriate algorithms for different laying periods, that supporting delicacy feeding management in farm.
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spelling doaj-art-8b4d4a00178b45e7b63b53d167b0de1c2025-08-20T03:06:37ZengElsevierSmart Agricultural Technology2772-37552025-08-011110091210.1016/j.atech.2025.100912Leveraging ultrasonic-derived phenotypes and estimated breeding value to improve abdominal fat weight prediction in chickens throughout the egg laying periodPenghao Li0Zhengda Li1Fan Ying2Dan Zhu3Dawei Liu4Xianyi Song5Jie Wen6Guiping Zhao7Bingxing An8Institute of Animal Sciences, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, 100193, ChinaInstitute of Animal Sciences, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, 100193, ChinaMiLe Xinguang Agricultural and Animal Industrials Corporation, MiLe, 652300, ChinaMiLe Xinguang Agricultural and Animal Industrials Corporation, MiLe, 652300, ChinaMiLe Xinguang Agricultural and Animal Industrials Corporation, MiLe, 652300, ChinaCollege of Animal Sciences, Shanxi Agricultural University, Taigu, Jinzhong 030801, ChinaInstitute of Animal Sciences, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, 100193, ChinaInstitute of Animal Sciences, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, 100193, China; Corresponding authors.Institute of Animal Sciences, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, 100193, China; Center for Quantitative Genetics and Genomics (QGG), Aarhus University, Aarhus, 8000, Denmark; Corresponding authors.Abdominal fat (AF) in hens impacts egg production and may reflect poor feed efficiency, meaning that dynamic monitor of AF changes facilitate to optimize feeding management and production efficiency. This study estimated hens’ AF weight among whole laying period through fitting vivo phenotypes by ten machine learning techniques (including generalized linear model, GLM; multiple linear regression, MLR; ridge regression, RR; LASSO; elastic net, EN; k nearest neighbours, KNN; SVM biased linear and Gaussian kernel; Random forests, RF and XGBoost). Consistent protocols were applied to all phenotypic measurements to minimize batch effects across five laying stages (8 traits: abdominal fat thickness (AFT), keel length (KL), breast width (BW), pubic bone width (PBW), body slope length (BSL), live weight (LW), keel-pubic length (KPL), and abdominal fat weight (AFW). The stepwise backwards variables selection was conducted to rule out the possible bias of multicollinearity between independent variables and AFW. While, AFT measured by ultrasound improved the predictive ability of all the models (R² of KNN showed highest increase of 12.35 %). Moreover, we also evaluated the contribution of AF estimate breeding values (EBVs) to fitting model performance. When incorporating EBVs of AFW as extra independent variables, all methods’ predictive ability had increased by an average of 15.71 %, especially KNN (27.2 %). For muliple laying periods, the EN model showed the best performance at 26 and 35 weeks, with an average R² of 0.928, MAE of 6.709, RMSE of 9.862, and MAPE of 9.660. The KNN model performed best at 28, 31, and 43 weeks, with an average R² of 0.918, MAE of 9.273, RMSE of 12.348, and MAPE of 17.240. These findings underscore the feasibility of accurately prediction of hens'AF through fitting appropriate algorithms for different laying periods, that supporting delicacy feeding management in farm.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2772375525001455Abdominal fat weightBroilerMachine learningPhenotype prediction
spellingShingle Penghao Li
Zhengda Li
Fan Ying
Dan Zhu
Dawei Liu
Xianyi Song
Jie Wen
Guiping Zhao
Bingxing An
Leveraging ultrasonic-derived phenotypes and estimated breeding value to improve abdominal fat weight prediction in chickens throughout the egg laying period
Smart Agricultural Technology
Abdominal fat weight
Broiler
Machine learning
Phenotype prediction
title Leveraging ultrasonic-derived phenotypes and estimated breeding value to improve abdominal fat weight prediction in chickens throughout the egg laying period
title_full Leveraging ultrasonic-derived phenotypes and estimated breeding value to improve abdominal fat weight prediction in chickens throughout the egg laying period
title_fullStr Leveraging ultrasonic-derived phenotypes and estimated breeding value to improve abdominal fat weight prediction in chickens throughout the egg laying period
title_full_unstemmed Leveraging ultrasonic-derived phenotypes and estimated breeding value to improve abdominal fat weight prediction in chickens throughout the egg laying period
title_short Leveraging ultrasonic-derived phenotypes and estimated breeding value to improve abdominal fat weight prediction in chickens throughout the egg laying period
title_sort leveraging ultrasonic derived phenotypes and estimated breeding value to improve abdominal fat weight prediction in chickens throughout the egg laying period
topic Abdominal fat weight
Broiler
Machine learning
Phenotype prediction
url http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2772375525001455
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