Genetic evaluation of growth, production and reproduction traits in Aseel and Kadaknath chickens in agroclimatic conditions of northern India

The present study was conducted to assess and compare the performance of Aseel and Kadaknath chicken in addition to the estimation of genetic and phenotypic parameters of growth, production and reproduction traits in both indigenous breeds. Single-generation data (2018) were collected from the records maintained at Poultry Breeding Farm, Department of Animal Genetics and Breeding, LUVAS, Hisar. The least-squares means for different growth, reproduction and production traits, viz., body weights at 8 (BW8), 12 (BW12), 16 (BW16), 20 (BW20) and 40 (BW40) weeks of age, age at first egg (AFE), egg production up to 40 weeks of age (EP40) and egg weight at 40 weeks of age (EW40), were 461.41 +/- 10.09 g, 683.64 +/- 15.10 g, 886.01 +/- 20.24 g, 1117.30 +/- 22.68 g, 1772.02 +/- 18.86 g, 182.66 +/- 1.98 days, 64.89 +/- 2.10 and 47.23 +/- 0.42 g in Aseel breed. The corresponding figures in Kadaknath breed were 343.63 +/- 5.67 g, 552.35 +/- 6.97 g, 719.04 +/- 9.02 g, 920.47 +/- 11.20 g, 1581.13 +/- 13.37 g, 169.83 +/- 0.95 days, 55.48 +/- 1.22 and 41.99 +/- 0.29 g, respectively. Higher body weights were observed for Aseel breed compared to Kadaknath breed at different ages. The effect of the hatch was significant for all the growth traits and AFE in Kadaknath chicken, while it was significant only for BW12 in Aseel chicken. Genetic correlations among body weights at different ages and AFE in both the breeds were found to be negative, indicating that lower body weights of birds within a breed lead to delay in AFE. Heritability estimates for different performance traits ranged from moderate to high (0.26-0.70) in Aseel and low to moderate (0.12-0.37) in Kadaknath chicken, suggesting the scope of improvement through individual and family selection in both the indigenous breeds.