Body conformation, morphometry and meat yield characteristics of different genotypes of chicken

Abstract

The aim of this study was to evaluate body conformation, morphometry and meat yield characteristics of broiler, Sonali, deshi and Fayomi chicken available in local market. Experiment was carried out at the poultry science laboratory of Jhenidah government veterinary college (JGVC), Jhenidah for a period of one month from February 2022 to March 2022. A total n u mb e r of 38 chicken (20 females and 18 males) were collected from different local market viz. broiler (10), Sonali (9), deshi (8) and Fayomi (11). The healthy birds were selected based on the availability and market demand. This study revealed that shank length, chest circumferences and digestive tract length were found highest in broiler. On the other hand, body length was recorded highest in Fayoumi and lowest in Sonali chicken. However, body conformation indices of male chicken showed higher value than their female counterparts. The findings indicated that broiler chicken had the highest body mass index (BMI), followed by Fayomi, Sonali, and deshi chicken. Similarly, broiler had the highest and Sonali had the lowest massiveness and compactness indices, whereas reverse feature was found for shape index. Sonali had the highest and broiler had the lowest shape index. Meat yield characteristics of male chicken were found higher than the female chicken among the genotypes. On the other hand, percentage of breast meat weight was found higher in female than male birds of all genotypes. However, both sexes of broiler had the highest and Sonali had the lowest percentage of dressed weight, breast meat and total meat weight. The study revealed that broiler chicken showed better meat yield performance when compared to deshi, Fayomi and Sonali chicken as meat bird available in local market of Bangladesh which provides an important message for consumer, producer and researcher.