Estimation of Additive, Dominance and Heritability of Some Egg Production Traits in Egyptian Local Strains of Chicken

Abstract

Egg production in poultry shows considerable individual variation over the laying period. Evaluation and selection of Egyptian local strain of chicken had been carried out. The aim of the present study was to estimate additive, dominance, heritability for some egg production traits and to determine the best strain based on multiple egg production traits. The four strains showed that Mandrah strain was ranked first, Doki-4 was ranked second, the strain Inshas was ranked third and El-Salam was ranked last in the performance of some egg production traits. The estimate additive genetic variance accounted a major part of the total genetic variance for sexual maturity, mature egg weight, early egg weight, number of eggs at 90 d of laying, egg mass at 90 d of laying and body weight at sexual maturity. The estimates of dominance genetic variance in these traits was relatively negative and low. The estimated heritability was almost 0.4 for all egg production traits studied. The present results showed clearly that Mandrah local strains of chicken may considered the fitting strains that play an important role in improving egg production.