Heritability and genetic correlation estimates in broiler chicken

A study was conducted to estimate the genetic parameters for body weight (BW) at 0, 4 and 8 weeks of age in a population of 273 white Rock and 348 white Cornish full-sib progenies. Estimates of heritability and genetic correlations were estimated from Sire (S), Dam (D) and S+D components of variance on hatch corrected data. The estimates of heritabilities for BW at 0,4 and 8 weeks of age for S+D component in white Rock were 0.84, 0.22 and 0.10 respectively. Corresponding values in white Cornish were 0.45, 0.22 and 0.06, and the pooled estimates were 0.60, 0.21 and 0.08. The estimates of genetic correlation from S+D component on pooled data between 0 and 4 week BW, 0 and 8 weeks BW, and 4 and 8 week BW were 0.28, 0.45 and 0.78 respectively. The high estimate of genetic correlation between 4 and 8 week BW suggested that selection on early i.e. 4 week body weight might improve 8 week body weight.