Prospects for utilization of the relationship between zoometrical measurements and performance traits for poultry and livestock genetic improvement in developing countries
Journal Title: Scientific Journal of Animal Science - Year 2015, Vol 4, Issue 11
Abstract
The preceding review looks at the prospects for utilization of the relationship between zoometrical measurements and performance traits for poultry and livestock genetic improvement in developing countries. Improvement of poultry and livestock indigenous to developing countries is paramount in order to increase their contribution to the much needed animal protein due to human population increase in this part of the world. However, this is on the background that the estimates of genetic parameters for performance traits in poultry and livestock are scarce in developing countries because of failure of most attempted selection schemes, which has been exacerbated by the problems of measuring of performance traits due to lack of appropriate technologies. Assessment of the performance of poultry and livestock species is done using various indices, most especially on growth and development traits as well as body conformational traits. The significant genotypic correlations between the body weight and the zoometrical measurements and the heritability of the body weight at various stages of livestock production indicate a systematic cause which can be important to consider for livestock breeding and selection purposes. In case, where the genetic correlations between zoometrical measurements and performance traits of concern are positive and high this implies that the traits are genetically linked. Morphological properties can provide to some extent a reasonable representation of the differences among the genotypes within the same species, though not exhaustive, it serves as the foundation upon which DNA analysis can be built.
Authors and Affiliations
N. Assan*| Open University, Zimbabwe
Analyzing shelf life of processed cheese by soft computing
Feedforward soft computing multilayer models were developed for analyzing shelf life of processed cheese. The models were trained with 80% of total observations and validated with 20% of the remaining data. Mean Square...
Goat production system in peri-urban areas of Khartoum state, Sudan
Data was collected from one hundred goats’ owners from peri- urban areas in Khartoum state and were used to study the characteristics of dairy goat production. Reproduction traits, diseases prevalence, breeding objective...
Haematological and serum biochemical responses of Jersey and three indigenous cow breeds at two physiological states in
Twenty cows of four different breeds (Jersey (4), N’Dama (4), WhiteFulani (4) and Sokoto Gudali (8)) were used to assess their haematological andserum biochemical responses at two different physiological states. At dry...
Physical characteristics, nutritive value and preference of Zebu heifers for ensiled mixtures of corn cob, cassava peel
In order to improve the feeding quality of corn cob and cassava peel for zebu cattle, a mixture of corn cob-cassava peel was ensiled with 0, 1, 2, and 3% of urea. Physical characteristics, chemical composition and in vit...
Influence of baobab fruit in the diet on intake, milk yield and milk composition in Red Sokoto goats
Baobab fruit (Adansonia digitata) is a nutritious but grossly underutilized food resource with great potentials for improving the productivity of milking goats in Nigeria. Twenty four Red Sokoto goats fed diets containin...