ISA R&D Farms

The ISA R&D farms are located in France, The Netherlands and Canada. These modern research centers house the big pure line gene pool of the ISA, Dekalb, Hisex, Bovans, Shaver and Babcock lines. In order to know the genetic potential of each bird, all pure line birds are pedigreed and housed individually. ISA has a huge pure line housing capacity to create a high selection intensity and to spread risks worldwide. This well structured selection creates the genetic improvement in the future generations of the six ISA layer brands. The R&D farms are under strict bio security rules to prevent possible diseases, and equipped with the so called filtered air positive pressure (FAPP) system.

The Netherlands

     

France

 

Canada

 

Field Testing

The pure line breeding stock is kept in bio secured, high health breeding and production sites in order to create for each individual the same conditions for fair genetic evaluation and to produce offspring free from diseases. Field conditions may vary all over the world. Local high disease pressure, different climates, higher stocking densities, multiple age farms, varying feed and management quality, make it necessary to test the commercials under a wide range of field conditions. Within ISA the selection decisions have been based on data obtained from pedigreed crossbred daughter groups under field conditions.( Recurrent- and Reciprocal Recurrent Test). Besides the sire testing, many line crosses are evaluated as well.

In our test facilities all important layer traits are measured on a daily basis. Handheld computer technology and automatic downloading and uploading of data files make this all possible in a time efficient way. The data collected are used for the selection of the pure line families in the R&D farms.

On a yearly basis 300.000 females are tested in Europe, North America and some tropical areas. This ensures that the performance of the commercial crosses in the field can be continuously improved.