Heritabilities and Correlations for Body Weight and Conformation in a Randombred Population of Turkeys

Abstract

INFORMATION concerning the heritability of various physical traits in the turkey are available in the literature (Abplanalp and Kosin, 1952; Goodman et al., 1954; Bumgardner and Shaffner, 1954; McCartney, 1955; Kondra and Shoffner, 1956; and Johnson and Asmundson, 1957). However, similar information concerning genetic correlations between these traits is quite limited. McCartney (1955) found genetic correlations of .90 and .94 between 16 and 24-week body weight for males and females, respectively. Johnson and Asmundson (1957) determined genetic correlations between body weight at 8, 16 and 24-weeks, between body weight at these ages and body measurements (shank length, keel length, body depth, breast width and tibia circumference) and between all the various body measurements. With a few exceptions, the correlations were positive and relatively high. Correlations of body weight with body measurements tended to be higher than those among body measurements. Also correlations between length of bone and breast width…