Quantifying phenotypic variability of indigenous chickens using morphometric traits by applying multivariate analysis: Input for sustainable rural chicken farming

Despite environmentally influenced performance traits in farm animals, variations in morphometric characters reflect unswerving genetic effects. In this study, body weight and body dimension measurements of indigenous chickens reared in four rural communities were investigated using multivariate statistical procedures to elucidate the existence of phenotypic variability between chicken populations. The study districts were selected based on higher indigenous chicken population, geographic distance, and agro-ecological distinctiveness. Eleven morphometric traits were measured on 1060 adult chickens from the districts. The results revealed that there were significant (p < 0.0001) variations between populations across districts. Significantly (P < 0.0001) higher mean values for morphometric traits were obtained in chickens reared in the Hula (highland district) than in those of the three districts. Likewise, multivariate discriminant analysis showed that most of the variables had significant power to differentiate the chicken populations into separate groups. Accordingly, three discriminant functions were extracted, of which the first two explained 95.6 % of the total variances in the populations. Moreover, in cluster analysis, chickens were differentiated into two sub-groups: Hula as a separate population, and Shebedino, Aleta Chuko and Boricha populations clustered together. Furthermore, the discriminant analysis correctly assigned 56.7 %, 55.1 %, 51.5 %, and 53.3 % to their source populations of Hula, Aleta Chuko, Shebedino, Hula, and Boricha, respectively, showing high mixing and mobility of chickens across neighboring districts. Therefore, this study confirmed the existence of significant morphometric variability between the studied populations, which could be used as a valuable source of information for selective breeding and sustainable use of indigenous chickens, particularly for rural farmers who almost rely on phenotypic features to select breeding stocks. In addition, the higher morphometric measurements shown for Hula chickens should be confirmed by on-station evaluation, and further molecular tools should be applied to validate the genetic distinctiveness of the studied chicken populations.