Growth Performance and Meat Yield Characteristics of Chicken Crosses

A study to evaluate body weight, weight gain and meat yield characteristics of different broilers produced by crossing 4 lines of chickens i.e. Male line white (MLW), Female line white (FLW), Male line colored (MLC), Female line colored (FLC) was conducted. A total of 193 crossbred as hatched as chicks of MLW (¿) × FLW (¿), MLW (¿) × FLC (¿), MLC (¿) × FLW (¿) and MLC (¿) × FLC (¿) were fed adlibitum and standard diet, reared on littered floor from day-old to 42 days of age to compare growth rate and meat yield characteristics. Body weight and feed consumption were recorded weekly. At 42 days of age 2 chickens (male and female) from each cross were sacrificed to determine their meat yield characteristics. Exploratory data analysis of collected and calculated data indicated significant effect of sex and day-old weight on body weight and gain of different genotypes. To overcome the initial body weight differences and sex effect among the genotypes, data were analyzed using Linear Mixed Model (LMM) in which the initial body weight and sex was included as a cofactor.