Study of genetic association for growth traits in a commercial broiler line and indigenous chicken population

Background and Aim: It is essential to preserve indigenous chicken breeds and commercial broiler line in Iran and to plan to establish desirable breeding characteristics and traits and to preserve and protect them in order to increase their production and profitability. For this purpose, in the present study, used phenotypic information on the growth-related traits of a population of indigenous chicken and two generations of broilers, each of which has been hatched in two routine and inducible cold stress conditions.Methods: Later on, the estimation of heritability for growth-related traits was done using UNIVARIATE analysis using AREML procedure of wombat software.Results: In the population of indigenous chicken, the heritability of body weight trait and age of sexual maturity were estimated to be ۰.۳۸ and ۰.۳۱ respectively. In the population of broiler chickens, the heritability coefficients of growth traits varied from low to high in two routine and inducible cold stress condition (from ۰.۰۸ to ۰.۷۶). The highest values of heritability were related to early of growth, which decreased with age, and this procedure was similar in both generations.Conclusion: Interpretation of the results of the estimation of heritability of growth traits showed that in this commercial broiler line there is a significant genetic diversity for growth traits. In general, genetic selection of traits targeted in this study can be expected to give better marketability in the poultry industry and to generate genetic improvement in the Indigenous chicken population.

Keywords:

growth traits , indigenous chicken , broiler , genetic improvement