EFFECT OF PHENOTYPE ON BROODING, REARING AND LAYING MORTALITY OF NIGERIA INDIGENOUS TURKEYS
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.51791/njap.vi.7894Keywords:
local turkey, brooding, rearing, laying, mortalityAbstract
A total of 78 day-old random-bred Nigerian local turkey poults were used to generate another 232 day- old poults in two planned experiments to determine phenotypic effect on mortality of Nigerian local turkey. Three phenotypic classes (black, white and spotted) were obtained as base population and used to generate F1 progeny in Experiments 1 and 2, respectively. Experimental design in both experiments was a randomized complete block (RCBD) with phenotypic class as major factor of interest and hatches as block. Results showed that there was significant difference (P<0.05) in the mortality of the three phenotypic classes. Brooding mortality was highest in the white phenotype in both main population and F1, except rearing phase of F1, whereas rearing and laying mortalities were highest in the spotted and white phenotypes, respectively. Highest brooding and laying mortality was found in the white variety. It was therefore, concluded that for rapid improvement of these traits, the black variety could be used to enhance production of Nigerian local turkeys in the study area while the spotted variety should be carefully selected based on its high mortality during rearing.