Indian Journal of Poultry Science

The karyotype of dwarf chicken was worked out using bonemarrow-air drying Geimsa techniques. Morphometric estimates of the chromosomes (relative length and centromeric index) were worked out for first 8 pairs of macro-chromosomes and were classified according to Levan et al. (1964).

Chromosome pairs from -1 to 5 were macro-chromsomes (MACS), chromosome pairs from 6 to 8 were intermediate (Large MICS) and chromosome pairs from 9 to 39 were micro-chromosomes (MICS). Karyotype of the dwarf resembles that of the standard White Leghorn chicken karyotype; with only minor differences in morphology of 3^rd, 6^th and 7^th pair of chromosomes.