Genotype-Environment Interactions in Broiler Stocks of Chickens

Abstract

PREVIOUS studies with broilers have indicated that interactions of stock with rearing location are of minor practical importance for body weight and other broiler traits (Gutteridge and O’Neil, 1942; Merritt and Gowe, 1956; Lewis and Blow, 1965). Significant (P < .05) or highly significant (P < .01) interactions of stocks and locations were indicated at all ages of measurement for body weights of both sexes in a study by Tindell <it>et al.</it> (1967). In the latter study the stock by location interaction component made up less than one percent of the total phenotypic variance regardless of sex or age at measurement; therefore, such interactions, although statistically significant, were concluded to be of minor concern. The stock by trial interactions in the same study were also statistically significant (P < .05), and made up from three to six percent of the total phenotypic variance for body weight at various ages in . . .