Correlations between blood markers and growth parameters in establishing marker bank for Black colour Nigerian local Turkey

Abstract

A total of 26 day-old random-bred Nigerian local black phenotype turkey poults were used to generate another 86 day-old F₁ poults in the study to determine quantitative traits and biologic markers. The Nigerian local turkeys were obtained as base population and used to generate F₁ progeny. Growth parameters namely; body length (BDL), shank length (SHL), keel length (KLL), breast width (BW), wing length (WGL) and drumstick length (DSL) were measured. Biologic markers, namely packed cell volume (PCV), haemoglobin (Hb), white blood cell (WBC), red blood cell (RBC), total blood protein (TBP), blood glucose (BGC) and rectal temperature (RT) were determined. Body weight, growth parameters and markers had significant (p<0.05) relationship. The marker bank showed that markers common to the black phenotype were PCV, WBC and Hb. These could be used in Marker-Assisted Selection (MAS) for the black turkey variety studied. It was therefore, concluded that for rapid improvement of these traits, the markers such as BPT, RT, RBC, BGC, WBC, PCV and HB could be used to enhance growth. The present findings could assist in the design of long-term genetic improvement programmes for turkey production in Nigeria using the marker bank for MAS.

Keywords: Black local turkey, blood markers, marker bank, growth parameters