Evaluation of Sire and Dam for Genetic Improvement of Fertility, Embryonic Mortality and Hatchability in Nigerian Local Chickens Populations

The study was conducted at Akpehe poultry farm Makurdi. About 50 adult females and 10 males each of the Fulani and the Tiv ecotypes were used for the study. The birds were house singly in identified pens partitioned into smaller units and hand-mated in the pen. About 600 fertile eggs were used to study the effect of sire and dam on fertility, embryonic mortality and hatchability. The eggs were incubated in different batches. Candling was carried on the 7th and 14th days to remove infertile eggs and those with dead embryos. Sire and dam had significant effect on fertility, embryonic mortality and hatchability. The effect of the dam was due to the variation in non-additive and additive genetic variances in the dam that influences its egg environment, nutrients sufficiency and delivery systems and other maternal effects that support fertility, embryo survival and hatchability, and that which affect maternal effects, egg environment and nutrients delivery systems that do not support fertility, embryo survival and hatchability due to genetic variation. The effect of the sire was due to additive genetic variance of the sire determining fertility, embryo survival and hatchability due to proper transcription and translation of genetic information. Or the additive genetic variance of the sire that determines the frequency of deleterious and lethal genes that had transition that supported improper transcription and translation of genetic information due to chromosomal aberration. Selecting superior sires and dams from the population base on high fertility, embryo survival and hatchability in a multiple traits selection may lead genetic improvement of these traits.