Effects of crossbreeding on growth, production and selected egg quality traits of Improved Horro crosses with Cosmopolitan chickens

Abstract

The effect of crossbreeding aims to characterize heterosis, additive, and maternal values for growth, egg production and selected egg quality traits in Improved Horro (H), Cosmopolitan (C), ♂Improved Horro*Cosmopolitan♀(HC) and ♂Cosmopolitan*Improved Horro♀(CH) chickens. A completely randomized design was used in the study. A total of 1200 eggs and 300 eggs of each genotype were used for the hatchability and fertility trials. A total of 480 chickens were used for the growth, egg production and quality test. The results demonstrated that egg production traits like egg mass (7.74 ± 0.79%), hen day egg production (5.16 ± 0.24%), hen housed egg production (1.65 ± 0.29%), egg number (1.65 ± 0.06%), and hatchability from fertile eggs set (0.92 ± 0.02%) had positive heterosis. The egg production traits of egg fertility (-0.29 ± 0.01%), age at first egg (-1.77 ± 0.14%), age at peak egg production (-0.44 ± 0.06%), and hatchability from eggs set (-8.20 ± 0.76%) showed negative heterosis. The estimates of heterosis values for the examined egg quality traits were generally positive, with the exception of the yolk weight heterosis estimate value. The estimated direct additive values were positive for all selected egg quality traits except yolk weight, egg weight, and egg width. The estimated direct maternal values were significant and positive for all of the egg quality traits examined, with the exception of yolk weight and eggshell thickness. It was found that CH crossbred had the majority of the traits that were estimated to be associated with higher egg production and quality. HC crossbred was characterized for the majority of the traits linked to growth. Conclusively: the majority of egg traits favor CH crossbred chickens over HC crossbreds, whereas the majority of growth traits favor CH over HC crossbreds.