1Veterinary College and Research Institute, Namakkal, India–637 002
3Department of Animal Nutrition, Veterinary College and Research Institute, Namakkal, Tamil Nadu Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, Chennai, India–600 051
2Veterinary College and Research Institute, Salem, India–636 112
Aseel, an indigenous chicken breed was studied for both qualitative and quantitative morphological characteristics utilizing the data collected on 240 birds at 12 weeks of age. Amongst qualitative variables, yellow colour skin (100%), red colour ear lobe (98%) and ‘Pea’ comb (98%) were predominant. The pooled mean of quantitative characters such as length (cm) of beak, neck, keel, shank, body and central toe were 1.97±0.38, 14.21±0.26, 14.46±0.21, 10.80±0.15, 52.70±0.56 and 5.83±0.91 cm, respectively. The pooled mean of circumference (cm) of the chest, wing span (cm) and body weight (g) were 28.04±0.33, 33.44±0.27 and 1079.59±25.54, respectively. All the investigated traits confer to the Indian chicken breed standards as per ICAR-NBAGR guidelines and British Poultry standards.
Morphology, Aseel chicken, Body measurements, Conformation traits, India
