Phenotypic correlation and breed effect on morphometric traits in pullet chicks

Abstract

This study was carried out at the Teaching and Research Farm and Animal Production and Health Laboratory of Olusegun Agagu University of Science and Technology, Okitipupa between 12th November to 10th December, 2022. Data collected on body weight and morphometric traits from one hundred and thirty-nine pullets comprise 48 FUNAAB Alpha, 45 Isa Brown and 46 Noiler were subjected to analysis of variance and Pearson correlation to determine effect of breed on growth traits and phenotype correlations among the traits. There was progressive increase in all the traits as age increased, however, FUNAAB Alpha and Noiler had higher values and significantly different (p<0.05) from Isa Brown. The relationships between body weight and other traits were high, positive and very highly significant (p<0.001) in Noiler and Isa Brown. In FUNAAB Alpha the correlations between body weight and shank length, wing length and breast girth were 0.276, 0.926 and 0.938, respectively. Breed had effect on the morphometric traits and increase in any of the traits leads to increase in body weight.