Mortality pattern in a complete diallel cross of Aseel Peela, Kadaknath and CARI-Red

An experiment was conducted at ‘Desi fowl’ unit in two Indian native chicken breeds, Aseel Peela (AP), Kadaknath (KN) and one exotic breed, CARI-Red (CR). A complete 3x3 diallel cross resulted into nine genetic groups. A total of 1837 eggs were incubated and 1298 good chicks were obtained in a single hatch and 720 birds were chosen randomly (80 birds on each group) for the study. The chicks were brooded up to 6 weeks of age in four tiers battery cage brooder following standard brooding management practices, then shifted to grower house (deep litter) and managed with ad libidum feeding and watering. The percent mortality biweekly up to 20 weeks and 0–20 week were calculated. The mortality percentage was high in first week of brooding, but gradually decline thereafter. Among the purebreds lowest mortality percentage was observed in CR (8.75%) followed by KN (11.25%) and AP (12.5%) while in crossbreds lowest mortality percentage was observed in cross CR x AP (1.25%) followed by KN x AP (2.5%), KN x CR (5%), CR x KN (7.5%), AP x KN (10%) and AP x CR (10.25%). It was found most of crossbred had lower mortality percentage than the purebred groups and negative heterosis percentage of most of crossbred also indicating superiority of crossbred. However, Cross AP x KN at 7–8 week and cross AP x CR at 9–10 week of age had positive heterosis percentage which, clearly indicated that the crosses did not always exhibit negative heterosis consistently.