Morphometric characterization of local and exotic chicken genotypes in three agro-ecologies of northern ethiopia

Abstract

The northern part of Ethiopia is endowed with local and exotic breeds of chicken; however, their morphometric characterization needs to be done to support future improvements and conservation. Hence, the study was conducted in three agro-ecologies (lowland, midland, and highland) of Northern Ethiopia to assess the morphometric traits of local and exotic (Naked-neck) chicken genotypes. The experiment was designed as 4x2 factorial with Chicken genotype (4 levels: local from each of lowland, midland and highland, and exotic from lowland) and Sex (2 levels: female and male) being the factors. ANOVA was conducted to determine the main and interaction effects of these factors on 21 morphometric traits. The results revealed significant interaction of Chicken genotype and Sex on all morphometric traits other than skull length, skull width, skull index and neck length highlighting the presence of vast sex specific differences among the genotypes. Apart from comb, earlobe and beak indices and wattle width, male Naked-neck (from lowland) have significantly higher values than the other seven combinations. The morphometric variations of chicken genotypes unveiled in this study are good indicators of genetic diversity of chicken population in Northern Ethiopia and calls for designing community based genetic improvement program to maximize desirable traits.