THE EFFECT OF CROSSBREEDING ON TRAITS RELATED TO MEAT AND EGG PRODUCTION

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Poultry Production Dept., Fac. Of Agric., Alex. Univ., Egypt.

2 Animal Production Research Institute, Agricultural Research Center, Ministry of Agriculture, Giza, Egypt.

Abstract

A crossbreeding experiment using Alexandria chicken (local synthetic strain)
and Nichols (broiler strain) was carried out in the Poultry Research Center, Faculty of
Agriculture, Alexandria University. The aim of this study was to compare the
performance of Alexandria, Nichols and their F1, F2 and backcrosses. connected with
meat and egg production. Results obtained indicated that Alexandria birds were
higher in fertility, hatchability, egg production and were earlier at sexual maturity by
9.5%, 7.2%, 5.7% and 3.8%, respectively. than Nichols birds; which showed heavier
8-week body weight by (4.5% for males and 3.3% for females). heavier egg by
(25.5%) and better dreSSing percentage by (11.2%). than Alexandria ones.
First cross birds exceeded the better parent in 8·week body weight, age at
sexual maturity and egg number. Heterosis estimated as a superiority of first cross
progeny over the mean of the two parental strains varied from 3.06% for fertility to
9.41 % for egg weight. The F populations were superior to the backcross populations
for fertility. hatchability. 8-week body weight. age at sexual maturity. egg number and
egg weight, indicating that. for these traits individual heterosis is more important than
matemal heterosis. Due to former results obtained. which indicated the superiority of
crosses over both parents and backcrosses in most of productive traits. it could be
recommended to produce F1's from good parents to reach the best income.

Keywords

Journal of Animal and Poultry Production
Volume 27, Issue 7
July 2002
Pages 4525-4537

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