GROWTH TRAITS AS AFFECTED BY CROSSING BETWEEN SINAI, GIMMIZAH AND SILVER MONTAZAH CHICKEN STRAINS

Aiming to study the effect of crossing between Sinai, Gimmizah and Silver Montazah chicken strains on growth performance of F1 birds, a 3×3 partial diallel experiment was carried out in poultry research farm in Faculty of Agriculture – Shebin ElKom during the period between October 2018 and December 2020. Three purebreds and four crossbred genotypes were obtained. Growth traits including: body weight at different ages; daily weight gain (DG); growth rates (GR%) have been recorded for all genotypes and the results summarized as follow: 1) Pure genotypes at the base generation showed significant differences in body weight at different ages, the same trend was also noticed at the F1 generation. 2) Gimmizah chicken strain was the heaviest birds at different ages (i.e., BWh, BW4, BW8, BW12 and BW16) at the base generation while Sinai strain was the lightest birds for all studied ages. 3) Crossing Sinai males to Gimmizah females resulted in heavier birds comparing with other crosses and reciprocals until 12 weeks of age. However, crossing Sinai females to Gimmizah males resulted the heavier birds across all four crosses at 16 weeks of age. Sex has a significant effect on body weight at all investigated ages, except body weight at hatch for all genotypes in the recent experiment. Interaction effect between strain and sex was not significant for body weight at different ages. Gimmizah strain recorded the highest cumulative daily gain (8.67 g/day) with no significant difference with the cross GS (Gimmizah males × Sinai females) which recorded 8.13 g/day (during the period from hatch to 16wks of age). At the F1 generation, differences between crosses, reciprocal crosses and pure strains were not significant according to ANOVA results, with one exception form 8-12wks of age there were significant differences in growth rate between the different genotypes. In conclusion, crossing Sinai chickens with Gimmizah and S. Montazah strains improved growth traits, and mating between Gimmizah males and Sinai females recommended for meat production purpose.