COMPARATIVE STUDY OF THREE STRAINS OF BROILER CHICKENS USING GROWTH TRAITS, BIOCHEMICAL PROFILE AND MATHEMATICAL MODELS
COMPARATIVE STUDY OF THREE STRAINS OF BROILER CHICKENS USING GROWTH TRAITS, BIOCHEMICAL PROFILE AND MATHEMATICAL MODELS
No Thumbnail Available
Date
2016-12
Authors
MAKKA, Nuhu
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
This study was conducted to compare three strains (Arbor Acre, Marshal and Ross) of
broiler chickens using growth traits, biochemical profile and mathematical models (Gompertz,
Logistics and Simple linear regressions) with the view of identifying the best strain and the
most suitable model for fitting growth curve in broilers. A total of 225 birds (75 per strain) were
used. The traits recorded at 2, 4, 6 and 8 weeks of age were body weight, shank length
(SL), thigh length (TL), body length (BL) and breast width (BRW) while the traits recorded at 4
and 8 weeks for biochemical profile were glucose (GLU), urea, creatinine (CRE), albumin
(ALB) and total protein (TP). At the end of 8 weeks of age, 27 birds from 3 treatments, (9 birds
per treatment) were used for carcass traits analysis. The carcass traits measured were carcass
weight (CW), breast weight (BRW), thigh weight (TW), drum stick weight (DS), shank weight
(SW), gizzard (GZ) and liver. Statistical analysis was done using General linear model
procedure of Statistical Analysis System and Python programming interface. The mean body
weights obtained at 2, 4, 6, and 8 weeks of age for Arbor acre, Ross and Marshal were 168.40,
494.52, 1085.14 and 1458.96g, 172.14, 505.40, 1044 and 1377g and 145.64, 401.65, 946.58 and
1272.06g, respectively. SL obtained at 2, 4, 6, and 8 weeks of age for Arbor acre, Ross and
Marshal were 6.71, 9.42, 13.15, and 14.59cm, 7.24, 10.34, 13.08, and 14.13cm and 7.07, 9.45,
12.19 and 13.72cm, respectively. BRW obtained at 2, 4, 6, and 8 weeks of age for Arbor acre,
Ross and Marshal were 13.12, 16.86, 25.04 and 27.49cm, 13.86, 20.71, 23.68 and 27.10cm,
13.22, 17.81, 23.68 and 25.70cm respectively. Similarly, TL obtained at 2, 4, 6, and 8 weeks of
age for Arbor acre, Ross and Marshal were 4.95, 6.33, 9.13 and 9.85cm, 5.00, 6.83, 9.26 and
9.34cm and 4.62, 6.22, 8.38, and 8.52cm, respectively. Lastly, BL obtained at 2, 4, 6, and 8
weeks of age for Arbor acre, Ross and Marshal were 24.17, 32.21, 45.81 and 52.92, 26.16, 35.01,
45.45 and 51.97cm, 24.17, 32.54, 44.67 and 50.27cm, respectively. Effect of strain on blood
viii
biochemical traits were not significant (P>0.05) between the three strains. Similarly, effect of
strain on carcass traits were not significant (P>0.05) except for drumsticks weight (DS) which
no significant (P>0.05) effect between Ross and Arbor acre with corresponding values of
161.33±6.15g and 145.66±6.15g respectively while Arbor acre and Marshal (140.33±5.77) also
had no significant (P>0.05) effect. Correlation coefficients between body weight (g) and body
linear measurement (cm) traits were moderate to highly significant (P<0.01) for all the strains at
age 2, 4, 6 and 8 weeks. Blood biochemical traits had low positive to high negative associations
with other traits of all the strains at 4 and 8 weeks of age. Carcass weight had positive and highly
significant (P<0.01) associations with BRW (0.92), TW (0.84) and DS (0.97) in Arbor acre.
Similarly corresponding values of BRW (0.82), TW (0.86) and DS (0.76) were recorded for Ross
while BRW (0.94), TW (0.98), DS (0.91) were recorded for Marshal. Ross and Arbor acre used
for this study showed a good difference for body weight than Marshal strain. The comparison of
growth curves using mathematical models in this study showed that, based on the leading key
indicators of low Mean square errors (MSE), high coefficient of determination and high
correlation coefficients, simple linear regression (SLR) was more appropriate to describe growth
pattern of Arbor acre, Ross and Marshal strains compared to Gompertz (GOM) and Logistics
(LOG).
Description
A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE SCHOOL OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES,
AHMADU BELLO UNIVERSITY ZARIA, NIGERIA
IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE AWARD OF
MASTER OF SCIENCE DEGREE
IN ANIMAL SCIENCE
DEPARTMENT OF ANIMAL SCIENCE
FACULTY OF AGRICULTURE
AHMADU BELLO UNIVERSITY
ZARIA
Keywords
COMPARATIVE STUDY,, THREE STRAINS,, BROILER CHICKENS,, USING GROWTH TRAITS,, BIOCHEMICAL PROFILE,, MATHEMATICAL MODELS