Heritability of Packed Red Blood Cell Volume in the Domestic Fowl

Abstract

Although a heritability estimate for hemoglobin content of chickens has been published (Lepore, 1965), there is no estimate for the heritability of packed red blood cell volume (PCV) for chickens. The purpose of this report is to provide an estimate of the heritability of this trait. METHODSFive hundred pedigreed chicks, representing all 60 sire families of the Athens-Canadian randombred population were brooded using standard management practices for a two-week period. At two weeks of age, duplicate hematocrit samples were obtained for each bird by the microhematacrit method (Johnson, 1955). The average PCV was used in calculation of the heritability coefficient by the method of King and Henderson (1954). Sire families with fewer than three individuals were not used in calculation of the heritability. RESULTSThe average PCV (%) of the two-week old birds was 31.1 ± 2.1, with a range of 28.2 to 33.2 for sire families. Individual PCV …