Short Term Egg Quality and Pecking Behaviour of Three Strains of Chickens in A Tropical Environment

Abstract

This experiment was conducted to compare the egg quality characteristics and pecking behaviour of three layer strains namely FUNAAB-Alpha, ISA-Brown and Bovan-Nera. The number of birds used for the study was 60 pullets per strain. The 60 pullets per strain were replicated into 3 and randomly assigned into pens. The following parameters were monitored: egg weight, egg number, pecking and brooding behaviours. A total of 196 eggs were used for the egg quality study. A completely randomized design was used to analyze the data collected Coefficient of correlations among 16 egg quality parameters of each strain was computed. Principal component. analysis was used to reduce the 16 egg quality parameters of each strain into a small number of latent and orthogonal variables with minimal loss of information. The frequencies of feather pecking, head pecking and egg eating among the three strains of chickens were not statistically significant (p>0.05). Coefficient of correlations among the egg quality traits were mostly positive and significant (p<0.05, 0.01). Principal component analysis yielded five components each in ISA Brown and Bovan-Nera and six components in FUNAAB-Alpha. The principal components accounted for 70.49%, 66.79% and 68.26% of the total variance in FUNAA B-Alpha, ISA Brown and Bovan-Nera respectively. Principal component analysis could be used by poultry breeders to select group of egg quality variables instead of isolated traits.