Kang Shann-Ren¹, Lin Cheng-Yung¹, Cheng Yu-Shin², Lin Der-Yuh², Huang Tsung-Ping³, Hung Kuo-Hsiang⁴, Liang Hsiao-Mei^1*

¹Kaohsiung Animal Propagation Station, Livestock Research Institute, Council of Agriculture, Pingtung 91247, Taiwan

²Livestock Research Institute, Council of Agriculture, Tainan, 71246, Taiwan

³Animal Propagation Department, Taiwan Sugar Corporation, Tainan 70176, Taiwan

⁴Graduate Institute of Bioresources, National Pingtung University of Science and Technology, Pingtung 91201, Taiwan

Abstract

Taiwan native chicken strain (Taishu No. 7) carrying homozygous gene for heat shock protein 70 (HSP70) was evaluated for heritability, genetic and phenotypic correlations for body weight at birth (BW0), body weight at 16 weeks of age (BW16), egg weight at first egg (FEW), body weight at first egg (BWFE), age at first egg (AFE) and number of eggs laid up to 40 weeks of age (EN40) in female chickens. The multivariate animal model using the residual maximum likelihood procedure was applied. The estimations realized over three generations and the pedigree file was composed of 141 individuals. Heritability estimates of BW0, BW16, FEW, AFE, BWFE, and EN40 were 0.306, 0.763, 0.071, 0.284, 0.681, and 0.200, respectively. The body weight traits showed that the BW16 had the negative genetic correlations with BW0, AFE, and EN40 (r_g = –0.061; r_g = –0.242; r_g = –0.087), but had the positive genetic correlations with FEW and BWFE (r_g =0.419; r_g =0.945). The egg production traits showed that the EN40 had the negative genetic correlations with BW16 and AFE (r_g= –0.087; r_g = –0.195), but had the positive genetic correlation with BW0, FEW, and BWFE (r_g = 0.336; r_g = 0.039; r_g =0.182). Based on the results of this study, the BWFE could be introduced as a suitable indirect selection criteria for improving egg production because of the higher heritability and a positive genetic correlation with egg production.

Keywords: Genetic parameters, Heat shock protein 70 gene, Homozygote, Taiwan native chicken