The Relationship between Dominant White and Growth of Chicks

Abstract

Considerable interest has been shown recently in the use of dominant white sires in the production of white-plumaged broiler chickens. As far as the authors are aware no experiments have been conducted to determine the influence of dominant white on growth and feed efficiency. It was considered of interest and value, therefore, to make such an experiment. The chicks used in the experiment were obtained as progenies of five individual sire matings. In four of the matings the sires used were obtained from a cross of dominant white White Rocks crossed with a meat strain of Barred Rocks. Thus, four of the males used as sires for the stock of this experiment were of the genotype Ii (heterozygous for dominant white). They were backcrossed to the meat strain Barred Rock females (ii). In the fifth mating the females were from the same matings as the sires mentioned above and were …