Phenotypic evaluation of growth traits in two Nigerian local chicken genotypes

Abstract

A study was conducted to evaluate growth traits, including body weight, body length, chest girth, leg length, shank length and shank circumference, using data obtained from 150 mixed sex birds originating from improved Nigerian local chicken (75 normal feather and 75 naked neck genotypes) of 4 – 16 weeks of age. Body weight of each genotype and at various ages was regressed on other growth traits studied. During the early growth phase (4 – 8 weeks), there were significant variations (p 0.05) was observed in the two genotypes for all traits by the 16 th week of age. Strong and highly significant (p 0.77) for all ages except at 4 weeks of age (0.04), indicating that most of these traits could be used to forecast body weight precisely at various ages. Keywords: Local chicken, Normal feather, Naked neck, Body weight, Growth traits, Linear model