Phenotypic and morphometric diversity of local chickens (BRAHMA) from wilaya of Tlemcen, Northwestern of Algeria

Abstract

The aim of contributing to the identification of the typology of traditional poultry farming and morphometric characterization of local breeds in the wilaya of Tlemcen. Several field surveys were conducted in this region to target BRAHMA type poultry farms based on pre-established contacts with farmers. A total of 67 individuals from the Brahma phenotype hens at different locations in the Tlemcen wilaya were investigated to identify and classify these individuals and to study the morphological differences between them according to their location. Fourteen measurements in which 11 quantitative and three qualitative traits were carried out in this work. The results obtained for all measurements made on the population BRAHMA chickens in the region of Tlemcen with the 8 communes visited, show that there is a significant difference between the morphological characters except two characters length of the tarsi (LT) and width of the thighs (LAC). Furthermore, In addition, sex shows a small significant difference between the measurements studied.Thus the results of the PCA and hierarchical classification show that there are four groups that share the same morphological characteristics except for some differences that may be due to climatic and environmental adaptation. This analysis made it possible to establish remarkable phenotypical differences, which have implications to take into account in the program of characterization and conservation of the species.