Evaluation of Naked neck broiler genotypes under tropical environment

Abstract

Naked neck broilers were evaluated for juvenile growth performance and inheritance of growth traits (body weight at different ages) in the present study utilizing data on 850 birds produced from 40 sires and 120 dams. The population was tested for Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium and Mendelian segregation based on the gene and genotype frequencies. The gene and genotype frequencies were 0.53 (Na) and 0.47 (na); 0.22 (NaNa), 0.61 (Nana) and 0.17 (nana) in the population. The population deviated from equilibrium frequency and Mendelian segregation. The mean body weights of NaNa, Nana and nana at 6 weeks of age were 1314.±9.67, 1286.34±5.87 and 1259±12.85 g, respectively. The homozygous dominant (NaNa) and heterozygous (Nana) birds had significantly higher body weights from 4 weeks of age indicating the pronounced effect of Na gene as age advances. The body weights at different ages were highly heritable and shank length, a conformatory trait was moderately heritable. The genetic and phenotypic correlations were highly and positively correlated between the body weights at different ages except with day-old body weight. The shank length had positive correlation with 4- and 6-week body weights. The positive correlation between 4- and 6-week body weights suggested that the selection criterion can be pre poned to 4-week body weight instead of 6-week body weight.