Ifeanyichukwu Ude

Background: Improvement of the Nigerian indigenous chickens is desirable because of its socioeconomic important. Objective: To estimate the heritability, genetic and phenotypic correlations among body weight, body length, wing length and shank length of the mating of heavy ecotype cocks with light ecotype hens of Nigerian indigenous chickens. Methodology: The mating design was such that one heavy ecotype cock mated with 10 light ecotype hens in twenty replicate pens. The mating produced 752 chicks from ten batches of hatch. The estimates of variance components were obtained from paternal half sib analysis using the average information restricted maximum likelihood of BLUPF90 family of programs. Results: The heritability of body weight ranged from 0.20 to 0.44 from 6 to 12 weeks of age. Similarly, the heritability of body length, wing length and shank length ranged from 0.39 to 0.63, 0.51 to 0.71 and 0.31 to 0.54 respectively from 6 to 12 weeks of age. The genetic correlations among ...

The relationship between age at first egg (AFE), bodyweight at first egg (BWFE), weight of first egg (WFE), with egg numbers recorded at 20–28 weeks (EN1), 28 – 35 weeks (EN2) and 35 – 42 weeks (EN3) was evaluated using canonical correlation analysis. Two hundred layers contributed the data used for the study. Estimated canonical correlations between three pairs of canonical variates were 0.667, 0.247 and 0.047. Only the canonical correlation between the first pair of canonical variates (0.667) was significant (p<0.001) based on the likelihood ratio test. Canonical weights and loadings from canonical correlation analysis showed that weight of first egg had the largest contribution to the variation in egg number at the three different periods compared with AFE and BWFE. Therefore, WFE could be used as a selection criterion for selecting good performance layers in terms of egg number.

The aim of this study was to estimate crossbreeding parameters namely direct additive, maternal additive and direct heterosis for bodyweight and weight gain of crosses between Nigerian indigenous (NIC) and two inbred lines of exotic chickens namely pure white (PW) and pure black (PBL). The NIC was divided into two replicate groups namely NIC 1 and NIC 2. The inbred lines were derived from the within strain mating of two commercial strains of egg type chickens namely H and N Brown Nick and Black Olympia. Estimates of direct additive and their percentages were high and highly significant (p<0.01) in PW, NIC 1 and their crosses at 4-20 weeks of age and at 4, 12-20 weeks of age in PBL, NIC 2 and their crosses. Similarly, estimates of direct additive for weight gain were significant (p<0.05) at 0-8 weeks of age for PW, NIC 1 and their crosses and at 0-4, 8-12 weeks of age in PBL, NIC 2 and their crosses. While estimates of maternal additive were positive and significant for bodywei...

The aim of this study was to estimate the genetic parameters and breeding values for body weight and linear body measurements namely body length, heart girth, height at withers, hip height and tail length of cattle. The number of animals used for the study was 176 and fixed factors such as breed, sex and age contemporary group were included in the mixed model equations. Estimation of genetic parameters was performed using restricted maximum likelihood (REML) procedure in univariate and multivariate animal models. Estimates of heritability (h2) for body weight, body length, heart girth, height at withers, hip height and tail length was 0.31±0.11, 0.26±0.10, 0.54±0.11, 0.19±0.08, 0.22±0.09 and 0.02±0.12 respectively. The genetic correlations among body weight and linear body measurements ranged from -0.99 to 0.99. The mean estimated breeding value (EBV) for body weight, body length, heart girth, height at withers, hip height and tail length was 2.31kg, 0.23cm, 1.36cm, 0.66cm, 0.57cm a...

The relationship between age at first egg (AFE), bodyweight at first egg (BWFE), weight of first egg (WFE), with egg numbers recorded at 20-28 weeks (EN1), 28-35 weeks (EN2) and 35-42 weeks (EN3) was evaluated using canonical correlation analysis. Two hundred layers contributed the data used for the study. Estimated canonical correlations between three pairs of canonical variates were 0.667, 0.247 and 0.047. Only the canonical correlation between the first pair of canonical variates (0.667) was significant (p<0.001) based on the likelihood ratio test. Canonical weights and loadings from canonical correlation analysis showed that weight of first egg had the largest contribution to the variation in egg number at the three different periods compared with AFE and BWFE. Therefore, WFE could be used as a selection criterion for selecting good performance layers in terms of egg number.

This study was conducted to examine the growth performance and expression patterns of growth hormone gene and insulin-like growth factor in metabolic tissues of pigs fed different unconventional feed sources. A total of 45 growing pigs were randomly assigned to 5 dietary treatments at 9 animals per treatment and 3 animals per replicate. Treatment one (T1) comprise of whole maize (WM) which served as the control, T2: brewers dried grain (BDG), T3: cassava peel meal (CPM), T4: plantain peel meal (PPM) and T5: corn husk meal (CHM) at 35% inclusion in the diet. Data collected and analyzed includes; initial body weight (IBW), final body weight (FBW), average daily feed intake (ADFI), average daily weight gain (ADG), feed conversion ratio (FCR) and feed efficiency (FE). At the end of the feeding trial, three animals per treatment (one animal per replicate) were slaughtered; the duodenum and liver were collected and stored using RNALater prior to RNA extraction. Real-time qPCR was performe...

In order to predict the body weight of grass cutters from linear body measurements, the weights and measurements of 50 intensively managed female grass cutters aged 5 months were fitted into linear, quadratic and cubic regression models. Highly significant (p < 0.01) R (2) values ranging from 74 to 98% were obtained indicating that all body measurements were good predictors of body weight. Although quadratic and cubic models gave slightly higher R (2) values than linear models, it is recommended that farmers should use a simple linear equation based on tail length or heart girth to predict the body weight of their grass cutters. The recommended equations are (weight in kg) = 0.47 + 0.08 (tail length in cm) and (weight in kg) = 0.32 + 0.07 (heart girth in cm).

The effect of graded levels of grains of selim on the performance, gut microbial population and carcass characteristics of finisher broilers was investigated. Two hundred and four (204) 28 days old broiler chicks (Marshal breed) were randomly allotted to four treatments with each treatment having three replicates of 17 chicks each in a completely randomized design. Finely blended grains of selim was administered through drinking water on treatments 2, 3 and 4 at concentrations of 0.5, 0.7 and 0.9 g per litre while chicks on treatment 1 (control) received 1.0 g per 1.5 litre of antibiotics (Gendox). Chicks were fed ad libitum with isonitrogenous and isocaloric diets containing 20% crude protein and 3000 Kcal/kg metabolisable energy for four weeks. Results showed no significant (P > 0.05) differences among treatments in the final body weight, total weight gain, daily weight gain, total feed intake, daily feed intake and feed:gain ratio. There were differences in the microbial popul...