PREDICTION OF BODY WEIGHT OF TWO STRAINS OF LAYERPULLETS USING MORPHOMETRIC TRAITS

Abstract

A total of 200-day old layer chicks comprising of 100 chicks each of Nera Black and Lohmann Brown Classic were used to determine prediction models for body weight from morphometric parameters. Data were collected on body weight and morphometric trait; breast girth, body length, wing length, shank length and thigh length. All the morphometric traits measured in chick were significantly (P<0.05) correlated with body weight. The breast girth has better correlation with body weight than other morphometric trait in Nera Black (0.763) and for the two strains combined (0.788). However, body length had the highest correlation with body weight in Lohmann Brown Classic chicks. Breast girth showed the highest coefficient of determination (R2 value) of 0582 in Nera Black while body length had the highest R value of 0.715 and 0.610 for Lohmann Brown Classic and the two strains combined respectively. This study showed that morphometric trait like body length and breast girth can be used in estimation of body weight.