Authors : I.M. Sam, C.A. Essien, U.A. Ukpanah and J.S. Ekpo
Abstract: This study was conducted to determine the influence of sex on relationship among carcass traits (carcass weight, breast, drumstick, thigh, wings) and morphometric traits (body weight, breast girth, keel length, shank length, thigh length, wing length and body length) in broiler chicken. And also to evaluate correlated relationship between the morphometric traits and carcass traits. The 60 broiler birds were divided into 2 treatment groups (male and female) each group was replicated thrice with 10 birds per replicate. The birds were rear in deep litter system till the attain 56 days of age, body weight and morphometric traits measurements were taken on the 56 day. The 18 birds (9 from each group) were randomly selected, slaughtered and the carcass traits measured and recorded. The data obtained from these studies were subjected to Pearson correlation analysis. The correlated relationship among most carcass traits and morphometric traits were significantly positive (p<0.001) with correlation coefficients ranging from 0.01-0.681 in Males (M) Females (F) and in combination of Males and Female (M+F). The correlation between morphometric traits and carcass traits showed that breast girth and live body weight were positively and significantly (p<0.001) correlated with all carcass traits in all the sex groups. The observed significant relationship among the morphometric traits and carcass traits as well as between morphometric traits and carcass traits is an indication of the existence of high level of dependency amongst these traits, thus improvement in any one of these traits would elicit a correlated response in the other traits. More so, the positive and significant correlated relationship between carcass traits and breast girth indicate that breast girth can be used as indirect selection criteria for carcass traits in broiler chickens.
I.M. Sam, C.A. Essien, U.A. Ukpanah and J.S. Ekpo, 2019. Influence of Sex on Relationship Between Morphometric Trait Measurement and Carcass Traits in Broiler Chicken Raised in Humid Tropic. Journal of Animal and Veterinary Advances, 18: 309-314.