CANONICAL DISCRIMINANT ANALYSIS OF THREE  NIGERIAN MULTIPLE-PURPOSE CHICKENS AND MEAT-TYPE BROILER

PURPOSE: Canonical Discriminant Analysis was conducted on body weight and morphological characteristics of three Nigerian indigenous (normal feathered, naked neck, frizzle feathered) and Ross 308 broiler chickens reared at Maiduguri, Borno State, Nigeria using body weight, shank length, shank circumference, keel length, back length, thigh length and shank diameter. METHODS: Data were subjected to Canonical Discriminant analysis with chicken type as separation criterion using Statistical Packages for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20.0. RESULTS: The descriptive statistics indicated superiority of Ross 308 over the indigenous types. Naked neck chicken was distinguished from other local types in most morphological traits. The first Canonical function accounted for largest amount between group variability (98.4%), second and third functions accounted for 1.0% and 0.6%. Back length, keel length and thigh length contributed significantly to total variance. The overall percentage of correctly classified cases was 75.8%. The proportion of individual chickens correctly classified in to their original group was 100% in the Ross 308; 76.7% in naked neck, 63.3% in each of normal and frizzle feathered. Overlap observed among indigenous chickens suggests genetic admixture. The Dendrogram distinguished Ross 308, an exotic from the indigenous chickens. Frizzle feathered was most distant among the indigenous strains while normal and naked neck chickens clustered together. CONCLUSIONS: The Ross 308 broiler chicken was superior to the indigenous chickens in body weight and morphological traits while naked neck was superior to other local types. This suggesting naked neck to be crossbred with Ross to develop indigenous broiler-types.