Genetic Studies on Some Economic Traits in Broiler Chickens
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Date
1985
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Birsa Agricultural University, Ranchi
Abstract
1. The body weight and shank length in Red Cornish tended to be larger than that of the White Rook at almost all the ages of measurement, but reverse was the case for keel length.
2. The estimates of heritability for the body weights at various ages were more in Red Cornish than that of White Rock. However, all the heritability estimates of body weight, shank length and keel length were, in general, were low suggesting that simple selective breeding will not be much effective for the improvement of these traits. Therefore, the selection may be practiced on some kind of indexes or alternatively non-additive gene interaction effect may be utilized.
3. The selection of smaller chicks at day old stage may be preferred for the genetic improvement in the body weight at 8 weeks of age as the genetic correlation between these traits were negative.
4. The body weights at any of the ages at 2, 4 and 6 weeks may be used as a selection criterion for the genetic improvement of body weights at 8 or 10 weeks of age.