Growth Patterns of Two Chinese Native Goose Breeds

ABSTRACT To study the development rules of Chinese native geese, two breeds, Shitou and Sichuan White geese were analyzed from 0 to 12 weeks of age. The growth curves were fitted with commonly used four kinds of nonlinear models (Logistic, Gompertz, Von Bertalanffy and Richards). The results showed that the growth curves were appropriately fitted with all four models but the Logistic and Richards both had the best fitting with growth curve (R2>0.99). Analyzing the fitting parameters of the Logistic and Richards, we found that male Shitou had the highest adult body weight while Sichuan White female had the lowest weight. In Shitou breed, Shape parameter Predicted with Richards model was corresponded with Gompertz curve, while in Sichuan breed it was in between Gompertz and Bertalanffy. Growth parameters predicted with Logistic model was much more closed to observed value as compared others. So overall logistic was the best model to analyze the growth curve in Chinese native goose and Shitou goose had excellent growth performance when compared to Sichuan White