STATISTICAL MODELING OF BODY WEIGHT AND BODY DIMENSIONS IN CHI BIRDS

Résumé

In an event of unavailability of weighing scale, linear body measurements are used to predict the body weight of animals’ on-market and during selection for breeding. The aim of this study was to explore the relationship between body weight and body dimensions in CHI broilers. A total of 400 (Four hundred) day old CHI birds were used. Body dimensions - shank length, thigh length, neck length, chest circumference, beak length and body length and wing length were taken using a tape rule at the end of 8 (eight) weeks. Descriptive statistics, correlations and regression analysis were used to analyze the data obtained. Results showed that there exist a significant (P<0.01) positive correlation between body weight and all the body measurements studied. The values of the coefficients of determination (R2) ranged from 10% - 99.9% with neck length showing the highest value (99.9%). This implies that neck length could be the best predictor of body weight in CHI birds. Furthermore, the predictive equations showed that there was a significant (P<0.01) relationship between body weight and body linear measurements. R2 values obtained shows that the predictive equations could be used to predict body weight accurately using the simple regression model