| Issue |
Genet. Sel. Evol.
Volume 33, Number 6, November-December 2001
|
|
|---|---|---|
| Page(s) | 659 - 670 | |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/gse:2001135 | |
Genet. Sel. Evol. 33 (2001) 659-670
Effect of the slow (K) or rapid (k+) feathering gene on body
and feather growth and fatness according to ambient temperature in a
Leghorn 
brown egg type cross
Jean-Claude Fotsaa, Philippe Mératb and André Bordasb
a Centre régional de recherche agricole de Nkolbisson, Institut de recherche agricole pour le développement, BP 2067 Yaoundé, Cameroun
b Laboratoire de génétique factorielle, Institut national de la recherche agronomique, Centre de recherche de Jouy-en-Josas, Domaine de Vilvert, 78352 Jouy-en-Josas Cedex, France
(Received 4 December 2000; accepted 11 June 2001)
Abstract
Chicks of both sexes issued from the cross of heterozygous K/k+
cocks for the slow-feathering sex linked K allele with k+
(rapid feathering) hens, were compared from the age of 4 to 10 weeks
at two ambient temperatures. In individual cages, 30 male chicks of
each genotype (K/k+ and
k+/k+) were raised at
21 °C, and 60 others, distributed in the same way, were raised
at 31 °C. 71 K/W females and 69 k+/W females were raised
in a floor pen at 31 °C till 10 weeks of age. In the males, the
body weight, feed consumption and feed efficiency at different ages
were influenced only by temperature (lower growth rate and feed intake
at 31 °C); no significant effects of the genotype at locus K
nor genotype temperature interaction were observed. In females, all
at 31 °C, the genotype (K/W or k+/W) had no significant
effect on growth rate. Plumage weight and weight of abdominal fat
(absolute or related to body weight) were measured on half of the
males of each group in individual cages, at 10 weeks of age. Moreover,
on 36 males and 48 females of the two genotypes, in a group battery at
31 °C, the absolute and relative weight of plumage were
measured on a sample every two weeks between 4 and 10 weeks. In the
first case, no significant effect of genotype appeared. In the second
case, an interaction between age and genotype was suggested from
plumage weight: its growth, especially in male chicks, appears to be
temporarily and unexpectedly faster from 4 to 6 weeks of age for the
K/k+ and K/W genotypes.
Key words: slow-feathering alleles / rapid-feathering alleles / growth rate / feed consumption / feather growth / abdominal fat deposition
Correspondence and reprints: André Bordas
e-mail: ugenabo@dga2.jouy.inra.fr
© INRA, EDP Sciences 2001