Original research article
Prediction of Carcass Weight from Live Body Weight and Morpho-Biometric Traits of Male Nigerian Indigenous Chickens Using Path Coefficient Analysis
2023, 88 (1) p. 61-65
Adeyemi Sunday Adenaike, Banji S. Ajibade, Ubong Akpan, Christian T. Akinrinola, Christian O.N. Ikeobi
Abstract
Carcass weight has great economic importance in poultry industry and is associated with other traits. This study investigates correlations among morpho-biometric traits (body length (BL), thigh length (TL), breast girth (BL), shank length (SL) and wing length (WL), livebody weight (LBW) and carcass weight (CW) in male chickens and quantifies the direct and indirect influence of LBW and morpho-biometric traits on CW. The aforementioned traits were measured in 187 male Nigerian indigenous chickens at 20 weeks of age. Correlation and regression coefficients among the traits were obtained to determine the intensity and nature of their association while the path analysis was used to investigate effects of LBW and morpho-biometric traits on CW trait. All analyses were done by SAS 9.1.3 software. The correlation coefficients among morpho-biometric traits, LBW and CW ranged from 0.1953 to 0.9930. The highest correlation was between LBW and CW (0.9930). The results showed a positive and highly significant correlation (P < 0.001) between CW and all morpho-biometric traits except for SL (0.2652, P > 0.05). The LBW had the highest direct influence on CW followed by BG. Individual pre-selection for these traits could favour an increased CW in the future generations of this chicken type since the LBW and the BG are directly related to CW.
Keywords
path analysis, biometric, selection, correlation coefficient, direct effect, regression equation
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