Estimation of Heterosis, Combining Ability and Reciprocal Effects for Growth Traits in Chickens from a Full Diallel Cross
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- Year:
- 2018
- Type of Publication:
- Article
- Keywords:
- Diallel Cross, Heterosis, Combining Ability, Sex-Linked, Crossbred Chickens
- Authors:
- Khalil, Mohamed H.; Debes, Ahmed A.; Shebl, Mostafa K.
- Journal:
- IJRAS
- Volume:
- 5
- Number:
- 6
- Pages:
- 291-295
- Month:
- November
- ISSN:
- 2348-3997
- Note:
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 Creative Commons License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/
- Abstract:
- A 4x4 complete diallel cross was carried out involving four Egyptian local breeds of chickens: Alexandria (AA), Fayoumi (FF), Matrouh (MM) and Golden Montazah (GG). Data on body weight (BW) and body weight gain (BWG) at 4, 8, and 12 weeks of age were analyzed using complete diallel analysis. Heterosis estimates indicated that crossing between Fayoumi males and Matrouh females at earlier ages as well as between Matrouh males and Golden Montazah females at later age gave the highest heterotic effects for BW and BWG. General combining ability effects showed that additive genetic variance was important in determining BW and BWG and indicated superiority of AA breed in these traits. This breed therefore may be used as one of the parents if its improvement is sought through crossbreeding. The contribution from specific combining ability was significant for BW and BWG during all ages. Reciprocal recurrent selection would be advantageous to exploit non-additive gene effects to produce commercial broilers (FM and MG). Reciprocal effects were significant for BW. This cleared that sex-linked effects were important for the genetic improvement of BW. This study suggested that use of crossbreeding tool to develop new synthetic breeds suitable to Egyptian conditions with acceptance performance
Full text:
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