Maternal, additive and dominance effects of main and reciprocal crossbred Turkeys reared in humid tropics

Maternal and dominance effects, General Combining Ability (GCA) and Specific Combining Ability (SCA) were used to determine the influence of additive and non-additive genes effects on linear body traits, using a total of two hundred and fifteen (215) day-old poults of three strains of local turkey crossbred in the humid tropics. A full diallel crossing experiment was conducted using three phenotypes of indigenous turkeys with the plumage colour: black, white and lavender (spotted). A randomised complete block design (RCBD) was also used to analyse the data with phenotypic class as a major factor and batch as a block. The data obtained were subjected to analysis of variance (ANOVA). The result obtained in the study showed that GCA was significant for BL, WL, DS and SL and non-significant for BW, BRW, KL and NL with values ranging from – 0.34 to 0.640, respectively. SCA was also significant for BL, BW, BRW, KL and SL but non-significant for WL, DS and NL, ranging from 2.981 to 8.324. It was concluded that the significance (P<0.05) differences observed for most LBMs and BW in different ages (weeks) for GCA and SCA indicates that non-additive effects of genes could be improved genetically through selection and crossbreeding of BxS, BxW and WxS genotypes to bring about genetic improvement for BW and LBMs and by improving the environment. The result also indicates higher maternal and additive effects on body weight among the crossbreds. This also implies that poults from BxW and WxB dams are preferred for body weight compared to poults from BxW and BxS because of negative value estimates obtained in their maternal effect.