Heritability, genetic and phenotypic correlations of egg quality traits in Iranian native fowl

Abstract

1. The objective was to estimate heritability, genetic and phenotypic correlations for egg quality traits of Iranian native fowl at the Yazd Breeding Centre. 2. External and internal egg quality traits were measured on 1200 eggs from 794 hens of the 6th generation. A multivariate animal model with restricted maximum likelihood procedure was applied to estimate heritability, genetic and phenotypic correlations for egg quality traits using ASREML. 3. Heritability estimates for external egg quality traits ranged from 0·18 to 0·57 and for internal egg quality traits from 0·24 to 0·60. 4. For external egg quality traits, genetic correlation between egg weight and eggshell thickness (EST) was positive (0·36) and EST showed high genetic correlations with eggshell weight (0·84) and eggshell strength (0·55). This implies that heavier eggs tend to have thicker and stronger shells. 5. For internal egg quality traits, albumen height showed high positive genetic correlations with albumen weight (0·52), albumen index (0·98), yolk height (0·72) and yolk index (0·57). 6. Our results show that it is feasible to improve egg quality in Iranian fowl through selection for albumen height.