Morphometric Characterization and Discrimination of Three Broiler Chickens Using Canonical Discriminant Analysis

Abstract

This study was conducted to assess morphometric traits of three commercial broiler strains. A total of 300 day-old chicks, 100 each of Arbor Acre, Cobb 500, and Ross 308, were used for this study. Data were obtained on body weight (BW) and biometric traits, including, body length (BL), chest girth (CG), thigh length (TL), shank length (SL), wing length (WL), and keel length (KL). Analysis revealed significant (p<0.01) variations between strains for shank length, wing length, and keel length, with Cobb 500 exhibiting higher body weight than Arbor Acre and Ross 308. CG had the strongest positive relationship with body weight (r=0.886), indicating its usefulness in predicting body weight. The Mahalanobis distance analysis revealed that Arbor Acre and Cobb 500 were most closely related based on shank length (D²=0.247), while Arbor Acre and Ross 308 were closely related in WL, CG, and KL. Stepwise Canonical Discriminant Analysis identified SL, WL, CG, and KL as the most discriminating traits among the strains. The discriminant functions classified 64.8% of the chickens into their respective strains after cross-validation, with Cobb 500 exhibiting the highest accuracy (67.3%). Information obtained from current research demonstrates the potential of morphometric traits in distinguishing broiler strains.

Keywords

• body weight
• broiler chickens
• Mahalanobis distance
• morphometrics
• strains

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