ABSTRACT

The study was conducted to determine the relationship between body weight, organ and linear traits of three commercial strains of broiler chicken. A total of two hundred and sixteen day old chicks of three broiler strains (Arbor Acres, Hubbard and Cobb 500) comprising of 72 birds each were used in the experiment. The linear traits measured were body length (BL), shank length (SL), Breast width (BRW), wing length (WL), drumstick length (DSL), keel length (KL), thigh length (TL). Regression equation relating body weight and linear traits on Age in three broiler strains were obtained, the values of coefficient of determination (R2) range from 65.40% to 85.90% with Shank length showing the highest R2value which could serve as best predictor of Age in Arbor Acres broiler chickens . In Hubbard and Cobb 500 strain the R2value obtained range from 67.90% to 89.60% and 72.60% to 83.40%, respectively. Keel length showed the highest R2value and could be used as best predictor of Age in Hubbard strains while Drumstick length showed the highest R2value which could be used to predict Age in Cobb 500 strains. At week 3, body weight was significant (P<0.05) and positively correlated with thigh length (0.828), drumstick (0.763), wing length (0.046), body length (0.46). In Arbor Acres broiler strain. BWT correlated positively with KL and was significant (P<0.01) in Hubbard broiler chickens. At week 4, BWT correlated significantly (P<0.01) with SL in Arbor Acres, BWT correlated significantly (P<0.05) with BRL in Hubbard and also BWT correlated with KL in Cobb 500 at week 5. There is a significant (P<0.05) positive relationship between BW and SL in Hubbard at week 6. At 7 weeks the study shows that BWT has negative and significant (P<0.01) correlation with SL in Arbor Acres and BWT was also observed to have significant (P<0.05) and positive correlation with WL in Arbor Acres. The phenotypic correlation coefficient obtained for carcass and organ traits indicate that Arbor Acres showed superiority over Hubbard and Cobb 500 in most of the parameters measured. Arbor Acre showed significant (P<0.05) superiority to Hubbard and Cobb 500 in the linear body traits in most of the weeks. The result of this study indicates that Arbor Acre could be a strain of choice for rearing in our study area owing to its superiority over Hubbard and Cobb 500 in terms of growth and performance.