Heritability of growth traits in local chickens at 6 weeks in Nigeria

Abstract

Six-week heritability estimates of body weight, shank length, keel length and breast width for the Nigerian local chickens were obtained with data from a nested model. 170 chicks of both sexes obtained from 5 sires, each mated with 4 dams by artificial insemination were used. On hatching, the chicks were wing-banded, pedigreed by sire and dam. Averages of these traits were 114.97 g, 3.48 cm, 3.35 cm and 3.22 cm for body weight, shank length, keel length and breast width, respectively. Heritability estimates from the sire, dam and combined variance components for bodyweight, shank length and breast width were 0.41, 0.66 and 0.36; 0.58, 0.14 and 0.36; 0.58, 0.36 and 0.48, respectively. Estimates for keel length from the sire and combined variance components were 0.34 and 0.17, respectively. The results show moderate to high heritability for these traits.