The frequency and influence of spur gene on six metric traits in Nigeria Local Chicken

Abstract

A study was collected in two local government arears of Oyo state,Nigerian, an adult, free-ranging indigenous chiken on the incidence and possible influence of the spur gene (sl) on the body weight and five other matric traits: Body length (BL), wing length (WL), shank length (SL), shank thickness (ST) and breast girth (BG) which are indicative of the body size and growth 486 (37.15%) of the 1039 sampled local fowls were sparrowed and the gene frequency was estimated to 0.61. the calculated gene and genotype frequencues were significantly different (p<0.05) from the expected values for a recessive gene where complete dominance is operating while sex analysis revealed high significant (P<0.01) incidene of the spur in males (70.3%). There was no significant (P>0.05) genotype effect on any of the metric traits under consideration. It is demonstrated in this study that the incidence of spur gene (sl) seems to be sex-influenced, higher than expected but had no effect on the six metric traits considered.

Expression of Spur Gene in the Nigerian Indigenous Chickens in the Guinea Savannah Region of Nigeria: Phenotypic Effects.

“…Spurred native chickens irrespective of sex had significantly (P< 0.05) higher body weight, shank length, thigh length, body girth, toe length and shank thickness than spurless native chickens in the study area. This observation agrees with the report of Egena et al (2011) but contradicts the result of Oguntunji and Ayorinde (2009) who reported non-significant (P> 0.05) higher mean values for body weight and linear body parameters of spurred native chickens over spurless native chickens of Nigeria. The higher performance of spurred native chickens over their spurrless counterparts observed in this study, irrespective of sex, could suggest that the presence of spur gene in a chicken may have a pronounced positive influence on its body weight and body linear measurements.…”

“…Results are similar to the reports of Egena et al, 2011, Momoh andKershima (2008) for Nigerian indigenous chickens, and Dossou (2005), Youssaou et al (2010) for indigenous chickens in Benin republic. However, some researchers (Fayeye et al, 2006;Oguntunji and Ayorinde, 2009) reported that Nigerian indigenous chicken males had non-significantly (P> 0.05) higher body weight and body linear measurements than their female counterparts. The observed differences in body weight and body linear measurements by different authors could be attributed to age of birds, nutritional and health status of birds at the time of sampling.…”

“…Dang et al (2018) further reported that Vietnam native chickens with multiple spurs had diverse phenotypic characteristics that are similar with those of other native chicken breeds, but had low egg production and high egg hatchability when compared with other Vietnam native chicken breeds. The phenotypic effect of spur on metric characters in Nigerian unimproved native chickens in two ecological niches in Nigeria has been reported by some researchers (Egena et al, 2011;Oguntunji and Ayorinde, 2009;Mancha et al, 2006) with varied results. First, Oguntunji and Ayorinde (2009) reported that the incidence of spur is sex-influenced, higher than expected in the population, but had no effect on body weight, body length, body girth, shank length, shank thickness and wing length.…”

“…The phenotypic effect of spur on metric characters in Nigerian unimproved native chickens in two ecological niches in Nigeria has been reported by some researchers (Egena et al, 2011;Oguntunji and Ayorinde, 2009;Mancha et al, 2006) with varied results. First, Oguntunji and Ayorinde (2009) reported that the incidence of spur is sex-influenced, higher than expected in the population, but had no effect on body weight, body length, body girth, shank length, shank thickness and wing length. Second, Egena et al (2011) reported that the presence of spur in chickens is a pointer that the birds will be heavier than those not having the appendage.…”

Uganda chicken genetic resources: I. phenotypic and production characteristics

“…As such, hens with removed ovaries all grew spurs ( Hutt, 1949 ). The sex-influenced nature of spur incidence is supported in other studies ( Fairfull and Gowe, 1986 ; Oguntunji and Ayorinde, 2009 ; Egena et al, 2011 ). The tail length, which is made up of feathers for balance while walking and a steering mechanism while in flight, was mainly medium across the regions.…”