Heritability of 25-Week Body Weight in Turkeys

Abstract

THE concept of heritability is well established among geneticists and practical breeders, but the information on the heritability of production traits is still quite fragmentary, especially in turkeys. This paper reports heritability estimates of 25-week body weights in Broad-breasted Bronze and White Holland turkeys.A survey of the literature reveals only a few estimates of the heritability of body weight in turkeys. An estimate of about 0.23 was calculated for 26-week old male turkeys by Kentucky researchers (1950). This estimate was obtained by the intrasire regression method after correction was made for age (date of hatch?). Abplanalp and Kosin (1952), utilizing data from Broad-breasted Bronze and Beltsville Small Whites, calculated estimates by intraclass correlation and offspringdam regression methods at 4, 8, 14 and 26 weeks of age. Their estimates vary considerably because of age, sex and environmental (climatic) factors, but their most reliable restimates were in the medium to high …