Morphological Traits Study of Three Indigenous Poultry in Nigeria

Aim: This study investigated relatedness among three indigenous chicken types using morphological features and morphological trait interdependence within three indigenous poultry species in Nigeria.

Study Design: A complete Random sample design was employed in this study to investigate morphological relatedness.

Place and Duration of the Study: Birds of reproductive age were sampled from 12 states across Nigeria between February 2013 and November 2015.

Methodology: Morphological traits were measured according to the FAO description. Nearest neighbor analyses (hierarchical cluster) were done using SPSS 23.0 version.

Results: The nearest neighbor analyses showed that higher degree of relatedness exists between the wild type chicken and the frizzle feather indigenous chicken type in Nigeria. Traits interdependence was observed between and among the different morphological traits within the different poultry species.

Conclusion: The characters measured could be of useful genetic importance that may play significant role as markers for selection or breeding programs for improved productivity under free range or scavenging feed resource-based production systems.