Variations in Qualitative Traits in the Nigerian Local Chicken


Authors

  • J.O. Egahi Department of Animal Breeding and Physiology, University of Agriculture, Makurdi, Nigeria
  • N.I. Dim Department of Animal Breeding and Physiology, University of Agriculture, Makurdi, Nigeria
  • O.M. Momoh Department of Animal Breeding and Physiology, University of Agriculture, Makurdi, Nigeria
  • D.S. Gwaza Department of Animal Breeding and Physiology, University of Agriculture, Makurdi, Nigeria

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.3923/ijps.2010.978.979

Keywords:

Nigerian local chicken, phenotypic traits, tolerance of birds

Abstract

Ninety (90) captive adult normal feathering female Nigerian local chicken in an ongoing study were scored for phenotypic characteristics (variation in plumage and shank colour, presence of ear lobe, ear lobe colour, comb type, head shape and ptilopody). Sole (black, white and light brown) and mottled plumages were dominant and had an occurrence of 54.38 and 38.46% respectively. Shank colour was predominantly black (42.22%). Comb type varied from pea, rose, walnut to single with a percentage occurrence of 18.18, 22.08, 15.58 and 44.16 respectively in the population studied. 82.05% of the population had plain head shape while 70% showed the presence of ear lobes dominated by white colour (73.21%). Ptilopody was observed in 5.41% of the population. The population of Nigerian local chicken studied showed heterogeneity in the phenotypic traits considered and therefore present a genetic pool from which selection could be made.

References

Adebambo, O.A., C.O.N. Ikeobi, M.O. Ozoje, J.A. Adenowo and O.A. Osinowo, 1999. Colour variations and performance characteristics of the indigenous chickens of South-west Nigeria. Nig. J. Anim. Prod., 26: 15-22.

Ikeobi, C.O.N., M.O Ozoje, O.A Adebambo and J.A Adenowo, 2001. Frequencies of feet feathering and comb type genes in the Nigerian local chicken. Pertanika J. Trop. Agric. Sci., 24: 147-150.

Momoh, O.M., N.G. Ehobu and C.C. Nwosu, 2007. Egg production of two local chicken ecotypes under improved management. Proceedings of the of 32nd Annual Conference of Nigerian Society for Animal Production, March 18-21, Calabar, pp: 149-151.

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Published

2010-09-15

Issue

Vol. 9 No. 10 (2010)

Section

Research Article

License

Copyright (c) 2010 Asian Network for Scientific Information

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

How to Cite

Egahi , J., Dim, N., Momoh, O., & Gwaza, D. (2010). Variations in Qualitative Traits in the Nigerian Local Chicken. International Journal of Poultry Science, 9(10), 978–979. https://doi.org/10.3923/ijps.2010.978.979