Repeatability estimates of growth and egg production traits in the Fulani ecotype chicken
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Date
2014
Journal Title
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Publisher
World Poultry Science Association-Nigeria Branch
Abstract
One hundred and eighty three Fulani Ecotype (FE) chicks hatched from FE eggs were used to estimate Repeatability (R) for growth and Egg production traits. Growth traits measured were Body weight (BW),
Body length (BL), Body girth (BG), Wing length (WL), Drumstick length (DL), Keel length (KL), Thigh length (TL) Shank length (SL), Shank diameter (SD). Repeatability estimated was moderate for BW (050) from day old to 10 weeks age and high for BG (0.67) and DL (0.65). From 11 to 20 weeks age, high of 0.91 was estimated for BW, TL (0.69) and BG (0.68) while moderate repeatability estimates of 0.58 and 0.52 were obtained for shank length and shank diameter respectively. At the onset of lay, seventy two adults FE hens were randomly distributed into battery cage, and labelled per unit for egg production records. R was estimated for Egg weight (EW), Egg shell quality (ESQ), Yolk index (YI) and Haugh Unit (HU) at 30, 40, 50 and 60%. Hen Housed Production (HHP). R was moderate for HU and ESQ (0.43) at 30% HHP. At 40% HHP, ESQ had the highest R estimate (0.60), while EW and HU had 0.41. At 50% HHP, EW had R of 0.42, ESQ had 0.43, HU had 0.26. R estimate was highest for ESQ at 60 % HHP (0.48) followed by HU and EW (0.32). R estimated for YI were consistently low (0.01-0.16) throughout the HHP. R estimated in this study indicated the potential of FE chicken for genetic improvement.
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Keywords
Indigenous chicken, Growth traits, Egg quality traits, Repeatability Estimates.