ABSTRACT

One hundred and thirty-nine day-old local chickens comprising of 45 naked neck, 42 frizzle and 52 normal genotypes generated from 36 adult local chickens of three different genotypes, were used in a 24 — weeks experiment. Eight quantitative traits consisting of body weight (BWT), shank length (SHL), drumstick length (DLL), body girth (BDG), body width (BDW), wing length (WGL) and 5 biologic markers consisting of packed cell volume (PCV), rectal temperature (RT), white cell (WBC), red blood cell (RBC) and hacmoglohin (Hb) were monitored in order to ascertain their validity as markers and genotype discriminants. Data on quantitative traits were collected weekly while data on biologic markers were collected bi-weekly. The experiment was conducted in a randomized complete block design with the genetic groups as factor of interest and hatches as blocks. Results showed that the normal genotypes had significantly (p<O.05) highest mean values and were superior to the frizzle and naked neck genotypes for all quantitative traits measured. The genotypes did not differ significantly (p>O.OS) for all biologic markers measured except for PCV at week 6, so RI, WBC, RBC and Hb were not used in the discriminant analysis. Breed centroid obtained were opposing (.385,-.289 and .096) PCVÔ, (-.386,.372 and.564) BWT, which indicate that the genotypes were different and were rightly classified as different varieties/breeds. The classification results indicated that 72.2%, 38.9% and 111% based on PCV6, 47.6%. 48.O% and 56,2% based on linear body measurements and 36.8%, 49.9% and 60.8% based on BWT of original cases for naked neck frizzle and normal, respectively were correctly classified. The results of' this study indicate that the naked neck, frizzle and normal genotypes are distinctly different from each other and could be classified as different varieties.