Abstract

Understanding the correlation between body weight (BW) and biometric traits helps breeders to select the best biometric trait that might be used to improve body weight during breeding. This study was performed to determine the association between BW and biometric traits, such as wing length (WL), beak length (BKL), shank length (SL), body girth (BG), body length (BL), and shank circumference (SC), and to reveal possible direct and indirect effects of biometric traits on BW of Ross 308 broiler chicken breed. A total of 130 birds (65 males and 65 females) at the age of five weeks were used. Pearson’s correlation and path analysis were used for data analysis. The results showed that BW had a positive significant correlation with SC (r = 0.46) and highly significant with BG (r = 0.55) in female, whereas SL (r = 0.38) and WL (r = 0.36) had a significant correlation with BW and SC (r = 0.58) and BL (r = 0.53) had a positive highly significant correlation with BW of the male broiler chickens. Path analysis indicated that SC (0.36) had the maximum direct effect, whereas WL (0.31) had the minimum indirect effect on BW of males. In females, BG (0.46) had the maximum direct effect, whereas BL (0.21) had the maximum indirect effect on BW. The relationship findings suggest that improvement of SC, SL, WL, BL, and BG might increase the BW of the Ross 308 broiler breed. Path analysis findings recommend that SC and BG might be useful in selection criteria during breeding to increase the BW of the Ross 308 broiler breed. The findings of the current study might be used by Ross 308 broiler chicken breed farmers to predict BW using biometric traits.