Study of Phenotypic traits of Aseel chicken breed at an organised farm

Aseel germplasm was characterized for morphological traits utilizing the data collected from 834 birds at experimental farm of ICAR Directorate of Poultry Research, Hyderabad, Telangana. Aseel is one of the important chicken breeds of India, known for its martial qualities and majestic gait. Aseel birds were characterized by normal feather morphology, multicolored plumage predominantly brown, black, brown & black and others with solid plumage patterns. The colour transformation from chick to adult birds was more in males, as one colour in chick stage changed to up to eight colour variations. Black coloured chicks transformed to four colour combinations in males while three in females and yellow coloured chicks transformed to eight different colour variations in males and two in females during the adult stage. Maximum dispersion of colour was noticed in yellow coloured chicks. About 91% of the birds were having pea combed, which is the breed character of Aseel. Red ear lobes were common followed by white & red and white. The shank color was yellow in majority of the birds. All the birds have white skin. Wattles were present in males but absent in most of the females. The study concluded that, normal feather morphology, brown plumage with solid plumage pattern, pea comb, red earlobes, yellow shank and white skins were the predominant phenotypic characteristics of Aseel.