Repeatability and most probable producing ability of egg weight and one-day-old chick weight in Merawang chicken

Abstract

Local Indonesian chicken from Bangka Belitung is known as Merawang. This chicken has dual purposes as a meat and egg producer. The objective of this study was to determine the repeatability and most probable producing ability (MPPA) of Merawang chicken’s egg weight and one-day-old chick (DOC) weight. 72 pullet Merawang chickens were raised in single bird cages and their egg weight was checked at 36-38 and 56-58 weeks. The DOC was weighed after the eggs were hatched. The rptR package and the restricted maximum likelihood (REML) method were utilized to estimate the repeatability. At 36-38 and 56-58 weeks, the average egg weight was 46.435.44 and 52.146.15, respectively. Meanwhile, the average DOC weight at 36-38 and 56-58 weeks were 31.92±4.54 and 35.40±4.36, respectively. The result showed that at 36-38 and 56-58 weeks, the repeatability of egg weight was 0.77±0.05 and 0.69±0.05, whereas the DOC weight was 0.84±0.04 and 0.64±0.07. The average MPPA ranges based on egg and DOC weights were 46.51-52.23 and 31.97-35.52, respectively. The pullets with MPPA above the average were 38.46%-50.72% (egg weight) and 48.94%-56% (DOC weight). The results from this study can be used for selecting the Merawang pullet.