Disparities in the body, chest, and wing morphometric among three subspecies of local male chickens for genetic breeding

Abstract

Local chickens in developing countries, including Indonesia, have great potential to be developed into natural superior breeds to support food security and improve farmer welfare. Meanwhile, the major endemic subspecies found in the Bengkulu province are burgo and kampung chicken, as well as ketarras which are recently bred intensively. Therefore, this study aims to analyze the disparities in the morphometrics of three subspecies of local male chickens specifically on the body weight, length, chest girth and length, as well as wing span. Based on the results, the male burgo chicken morphometrical size was significantly smaller than ketarras, while the ketarras chicken was significantly smaller than kampung (P < 0.05). Furthermore, the average body weights for the burgo, ketarras and kampung chicken were 1.0, 1.2 and 1.9 kg cock-1, respectively, while the average of body length, chest and chest length, as well as wing span were 29.9, 40.0, 47.7 cm cock-1; 26.2, 30.1, 36.3 cm cock-1; 12.6, 17.8, 20.3 cm cock-1, and 34.4, 41.9, 55.9 cm cock-1, respectively. Therefore, it was concluded that the burgo and kampung chicken have the smallest and biggest morphometric sizes respectively.