Genetic and Environmental Correlations Among Production Traits of Poultry

Abstract

GENETIC parameters for the construction of selection indexes in connection with selective improvement of poultry flocks has been subject to only limited investigation. Examples of their application have, however, been given by Lerner et al. (1947), Dempster and Lerner (1947), Wyatt (1954), Kruger et al. (1952), and Dillard et al. (1953). There appears to be a need for further information about interaction among production traits as measured by correlated responses to selection or predicted on the basis of genetic correlations. The genetic parameters necessary for constructing selection indexes have been estimated here for some production traits of poultry. Data from commercial breeding flocks of Kimber Farms Inc., Niles, California, were available for this study. Details about the populations have been given elsewhere (Abplanalp, 1956). The correlation estimates presented here are based on 2,647 pullets from 40 sires and 137 dams belonging to four generations of a line in which mostly …