APPLICATION OF CANONICAL DISCRIMINANT AND HIERARCHICAL CLUSTER ANALYSES IN MORPHOLOGICAL TRAITS OF FIVE NIGERIAN INDIGENOUS CHICKEN TYPES

Abstract

Morphological characterization of five Borno state indigenous chicken types (normal feathered, frizzle feathered, naked neck, rose comb and crested chickens) was carried out using Canonical Discriminant and hierarchical cluster analyses. The eleven morphological measurements examined were body weight, ornithological measurement, wingspan, neck length, back length, keel length, tail length, thigh length, shank length, skull length and skull width. Tests of homogenous group means revealed that genotype was source of variation in all the variables and showed that naked neck was most superior while frizzle was least. Rose comb had the longest wing span. Longest tail was expressed by the crested. The first canonical function accounted for largest amount of between-group variability (49.7%), second, third and fourth accounted for 40.6%, 8.1% and 1.6%, respectively. The Dendrogram discriminated the chickens into two main clusters; the first cluster had naked neck on one hand, normal and rose comb on the other. The second cluster consisted frizzle and crested as subclusters, suggesting close relationship between the clustered birds. Confirmation of these detected morphological differentiations could be done using molecular-based techniques.