PREDICTION OF MATURED LIVE BODY WEIGHT OF THREE PLUMAGE VARIETIES OF NOILER CHICKEN USING LINEAR BODY MEASUREMENTS AS REGRESSORS

Abstract

The objective of the study was to predict live body weight from liner body measurements of Noiler chickens. Data on body weight (BW) and five body measurements [body length (BL), shank length (SL), breast girth (BG), and wing length (WL)] were individually collected from 240 mature Noiler chickens of three different varieties (Black, Brown and Barred) raised from hatch to maturity at 16 weeks. Data were collected on body weight, shank length, breast girth, body length and wing length at 16 week (maturity). Data collected were analyzed using the REG procedure of SAS. The results showed that body weight was significantly and strongly correlated with most linear body measurements. Further, SL (R2 = 0.7739) best predicted BW in black variety of Noiler chicken while BL best predicted BW in brown and barred variety (R2 = 0.8850; R2 = 0.6661, respectively). Therefore, it can be concluded that BW is associated with linear body measurements and that multiple regression equations that included a combination of the four linear body measurements are suitable for predicting BW of Noiler chicken populations.