Genetic parameters for egg production traits in purebred and hybrid chicken in a tropical environment

Genetic parameters were estimated for 5 economically important egg production traits using records collected over 9 years in chickens reared under tropical conditions in Thailand. The data were from two purebred lines and two hybrid lines of layer parent stocks. The two purebred lines were Rhode Island Red (RIR) and White Plymouth Rock (WPR) and the hybrid lines were formed by crossing a commercial brown egg laying strain to Rhode Island Red (RC) and White Plymouth Rock (WC), respectively. Five egg production traits were analysed, including age at first egg (AFE), body weight at first egg (BWT), egg weight at first egg (EWFE), number of eggs from the first 17 weeks of lay (EN) and average egg weight over the 17th week of lay (EW). Fixed effects of year and hatch within year were significant for all 5 traits and were included in the model. Maternal genetic and permanent environmental effects of the dam were not significant, except for EN and EW in RIR and BWT and EW in WPR. Estimated heritability of AFE, BWT, EWFE, EN and EW were 0.45, 0.50, 0.29, 0.19 and 0.43 in RIR; 0.44, 0.38, 0.33, 0.20 and 0.38 in WPR; 0.37, 0.41, 0.38, 0.18 and 0.36 in RC; and 0.46, 0.53, 0.36, 0.38 and 0.45 in WC lines, respectively. The EN was negatively correlated with other traits, except for BWT in RC and AFE and BWT in WC. It was concluded that selection for increased EN will reduce other egg production traits in purebred and hybrid chicken and therefore EN needs to be combined with other egg production traits in a multi-trait selection index to improve all traits optimally according to a defined breeding objective.