A study involving the use of random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) was conducted to evaluate genetic polymorphism and relatedness within and among four chicken breeds: Araucona, Rhode Island Red, White Leghorn, and White Plymouth Rock, and two turkey populations, a long-term randombred and a commercial strain. A total of 60 random primers were used in the RAPD analyses. Forty-two of the 60 primers tested amplified patterns with at least one polymorphic fragment in one or more of the populations. Six of these 42 primers amplified polymorphic fragments in each of the six strains with a within- and between-population average band-sharing frequency of less than one but above zero (P < 0.05). Differences among the six primers for genetic distance (D) among populations were significant (P < 0.05). A consensus dendogram was therefore developed to show the phylogenetic relationships among the populations. As expected, estimates of D between populations were lowest within species and highest between species. The results provide evidence of the applicability of RAPD to determining genetic relatedness within and among different poultry populations and in developing reproducible markers useful in evaluating individual variation in chickens and turkeys.

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