Department of Genetics and Animal Breeding, College of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, G. B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar - 263 145 (U.A.)
1 Dept. of A.H. and Dairying, Udai Pratap Autonomous College, Varanasi-221 002 (U.P.)
White Leghorn is one of the most popular breed of chicken. This breed is frequently used for cross breeding and genetic improvement of non-descript desi fowls in the country. Popularity of this breed is due to higher egg production with large size of white eggs and small body size consequently less feed requirement. The present study was undertaken on 559 pullet progenies obtained from 149 dams mated with 58 sires produced in a single hatch. The heritability of 12-BW, 36-BW, ASM, EP and EW were estimated as 0.52±0.15, 0.59±0.16, 0.43±0.14, 0.38±0.13 and 0.53±0.15, respectively. The direct selection responses per generation on individual traits viz. 12-BW, 36-BW, ASM, EP and EW were found as 32.22 g, 66.39 g, -2.65 days, 3.24 eggs, 1.05 g respectively. The per cent gain per generation of expected correlated response was observed maximum for 36-BW (5.22) while selecting for EW whereas lowest was found for EW (0.25) when selection was made on ASM.
White Leghorn, response, body weights, egg production, egg weight
