BODY WEIGHT AND MORPHOMETRICS OF FRIZZLE FEATHERED AND PLYMOUTH ROCK BREEDS AND THEIR F1 AND F2 CROSBRED

The study was conducted at the Poultry Research Center (PRC) of the Faculty of Agriculture, DSUST, Ozoro, to evaluate body weight (BWT) and body morphometrics (BM) of Frizzle feathered (FF) chicken and Plymouth Rock (PR) breed and their F1 and F2 crossbred. One hundred and sixty-eight (165) sexually matured FF chickens were reared on deep litter system. It comprises of one 150 FF chicken and 15 PR cock and was bred (natural). The first cross was between FF and PR cock produced 50 % indigenous (I) and 50 % exotic (E) in first filial generation. The second cross was an inter se mating of the heterozygous FF from the F1 generation. The second cross produced offspring that were 25 % I and 75 % E. The pure breed was used to bred F1 and F2 generations. The BM include: body weight (BWT), comb length (CL), Beak length (BKL), Head length (HL), Neck length (NL), Wing length (WL), Keel length (KL), Breast Girth (BG), Thigh length (THL), Shank length (SL), and Toe length (TOL). The results revealed that generation had significant (P<0.05) effect on all variables. Results showed that Pure FF of F1 was higher than the parent value. It was concluded that crossbred offspring of F1 and F2 generations were observed to be superior in all the traits of BM than the purebred lines. Therefore, the mating system of crossbreeding and selection should be adopted to enhance genetic improvement strategies of the crossbred lines over many generations