EFFECTS OF GENOTYPE, AGE AND SEASON ON BODY WEIGHT AND SOME EGG QUALITY CHARACTERISTICS OF BROILER BREEDING STOCKS

Abstract

The study was conducted on Marshall and Abor Acre broiler breeding stocks to determine the effect of genotype, age and season on body weight and some egg quality traits. The study was carried out at Gombe Poultry Production Unit, Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Husbandry, Gombe State, Nigeria. A total of 200 birds comprises of 100 Marshal and Abor Acre each were used to obtained the data during which they were all fed commercial diet at different age accordingly and water was provided ad-libitum. Data was collected on body weight, egg weight, egg length, egg width and egg shape index. The data were subjected to analysis of variance (ANOVA) and analyzed using general linear model of SAS computer package and Duncan Multiple Range was used to separate the means. The overall means for body weight (BW), egg weight (EW), egg length (EL), egg width (EWd) and egg shape index (E.S.I) were 41.30 g, 63.22 g, 4.55, 3.23 cm and 70.78 %, respectively. Effect of genotype was significant (P<0.05) on BW and EW except EL, EWd and E.S.I. Age and season were significant (P<0.05) on BW and EW while EL and EWd was significantly (P<0.01) different between the age and season, respectively. The study concluded that there was variation on body weight and egg weight which indicated the differences between the Marshall and Abor Acre broiler breeder stocks. Age and season had significant effect on body weight and some egg quality traits which indicate differences in selection of genotypes between age and season within the genotypes.