A COMPARATIVE MORPHOLOGICAL CHARACTERIZATION OF THREE LOCALAND THREE EXOTIC CHICKEN TYPES IN NIGERIA.

Abstract

Three adullt local chicken types in Nigeria (wild type. Ibile; naked neck, Abolorun
andfrizzledfeather; Asaa; and three exotic types; Bovans near, Isa brown and Cobb)
were characterized using twenty morphological traits. The descriptive analysis: group
means and the standard deviations values of the 20 traits studied showed significant
differences for all 20 morphological traits analysed using SPSS 15.0 version. The
correlation matrixes .. dendrogram and Principal Components Analysis (PCA)
revealed the exotic types distant fro 111 the local types. However; it was observed that

. the closest neighbour with the local types, 26% coefficient level, was with the naked
neck. The Asaa and the Ibile local chicken types show closer level of relatedness
(89%) while Abolurun and the exotics indicated 34% similarity. At 0.90 coefficient
level Wattle size, comb length, beak length and spur number show some degree of
interdependence so also the tail length, shank length, number of toes and wing length
clustering together However; the back length and the height indicate closer interaction
between and forl1l a distance relationship with other eight traits. These are indications
that the three local chicken types may notfall into same classification and that some
morphological traits may influence one another.