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The juvenile growth and carcass traits were evaluated in a 4 × 4 full diallel crossing involving four colored broiler chicken lines viz., Naked neck (NN), Dwarf, Punjab Broiler-1 (PB-1), and Punjab Broiler-2 to study the performance and crossbreeding parameters. The data on 2,280 chicks were analyzed using least squares techniques to assess the effect of genetic group, and the significant traits were further analyzed for crossbreeding parameters. Genetic group had significant influence on the body weights and carcass traits. The cross of PB-1 × NN recorded significantly (p ≤ 0.05) higher body weight at 6 weeks of age. The data revealed that general combining ability (GCA), specific combining ability (SCA), maternal ability (MA), sex-linked effect (SE), and purebred effects significantly influenced the growth and carcass traits in the broiler crosses. The crossbred PB-1 × NN showed positive heterosis for growth as well as carcass traits. The results suggest that GCA, SCA, SE, and MA are important in the inheritance of the body weights and carcass traits indicating the presence of both additive and nonadditive genetic variation along with reciprocal effects. Therefore, pure line selection along with development of specialized sire and dam lines followed by crossing will improve the growth performance and benefit the poultry farmers. It is concluded that PB-1 as a male line and NN as a female line performed significantly higher, therefore, may be used for improving the performance of colored broilers.

A comprehensive study was undertaken to evaluate the effect of naked neck (Na) gene on immune competence, serum biochemical parameters and carcass quality traits in three genotypes (NaNa, Nana and nana) of the naked neck chicken under a tropical climate (Southern India). Sixty day-old chicks (20 from each genotype) were selected randomly and reared under similar environmental conditions up to eight weeks of age. The cell mediated immune (CMI) response to phytohaemoagglutinin-P (PHA-P) was significantly higher (p≤0.01) in NaNa and Nana genotypes compared to nana birds. The humoral response as measured by antibody titre to sheep red blood cells (SRBC) was also significantly higher in NaNa. The total cholesterol, LDL and VLDL cholesterol levels were significantly (p≤0.01) lower whereas HDL cholesterol level was significantly higher in NaNa and Nana compared to nana genotype. The presence of Na allele significantly increased the live weight and dressing yield, and decreased the feather cover and abdominal fat. The naked neck genotypes (NaNa/Nana) performed better than the normal (nana) siblings for almost all the traits studied.

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