International Journal of Poultry Science
1682-8356
1994-7992
Asian Network for Scientific Information
10.3923/ijps.2006.589.592
Adeyinka
I. A.
Oni
O. O.
Nwagu
B. I.
Adeyinka
F. D.
6
2006
5
6
The chicks used in this
experiment were obtained from a population of naked neck broiler chickens
that has been kept in NAPRI since 1998. Six Hundred chicks were obtained
from four hatches, one week apart. At hatch, pedigreed chicks were wing-banded
and housed on deep litter in an open house. Body weights were measured
biweekly up to 8 weeks of age. Other measurements taken include Neck
length, Back length, keel length and breast angle. The general least
square means were 37.22 ± 0.32, 210.46 ± 1.97, 744.33 ± 4.31, 1351.3
± 7.91 and 2428.1 ± 14.61g for wt at day old (WT0D), weight at 2 weeks
(WT14D), weight at 4 weeks (WT28D), weight at 6 weeks (WT42D) and weight
at 8 weeks (WT56D), respectively. While measurements taken included
Neck length, Back length, keel length and breast which were 7.31 ± 0.06,
15.99 ± 0.05, 5.63 ± 0.04, 10.44 ± 0.04cm respectively. The heritability estimates
ranged from low value of 3.013 ± 0.08 for keel length to 0.315 ± 0.22 for
WT0D. There were negative genetic correlations between WT0D and other
traits. This study showed that additive heritabilities are low for linear
body measurement and moderate for body weight for naked neck chickens
during rearing.]]>