Abstrakt

Inheritance of qualitative traits in two populations of Nigerian local chicken ecotypes.

Gwaza DS, Dim NI, Momoh OM

The study was conducted at akpehe poultry farm, Makurdi. Nigeria. A total of seven hundred day old chicks obtained from the mattings of one hundred dams mated to twenty sires were used for the study. The study was designed to provide information on the inheritance of qualitative traits in two populations of the local chicken ecotypes of Nigeria. White shank and beak, white and black skin, black and brown earlobes, white, yellow and brown eye colors fitted closely to the expected mendelian ratios of 3:1 as their alleles shows independent assortment and were thus heritable. Other qualitative traits did not fit into the expected mendelian ratios, indicating that multiple alleles may be involves in their expressions. Plumage color variations all deviated from their expected ratios. This may be due to multiple alleles or polygenic influence, involving gene interactions, gene complexes as well as genetically controlled events, and as such would not be heritable. Artificial selection must be applied to large variation in plumage colors to ensure there availability for adaptation for future use.