Comparative study on morphometric traits of local chicken (gallus domesticus L.) in wilaya of Adrar

A study was conducted in the wilaya of Adrar in Algeria (a part of Sahara) to describe the phenotype and morphometric characteristics of local chickens. Six regions namely (part of the wilaya of Adrar) Tamentit, Zawyet Elkenta, Wlad Ahmed, Adrar city, Anezjmir and Founoghil were selected for data collection. A field survey was used to extract information from the farmers concerning production attributes of their local chickens. Measurements on body weight, tarsal length and width, high Length, thigh width, bill length, spout width, total length, breast width and eggs number per year were taken on 89 mature chickens (69 females and 20 males). The results obtained indicate that there exists significant variation between regions with respect to some production attributes as well as body weight and other body measurements. Fonoughil and Adrar city regions had the heaviest chickens (2.54kg-2.40kg respectively) while Zawyet Elkenta had the lightest birds (1.8kg). Overall, male chickens were higher than female birds with respects to all attributes studied. Body weight appeared to be highly positively correlated to some other body measurements considered in this study. The observed variation about the morphometric traits in the present study illustrate by the principal component analysis suggests that there are two groups, the first of which is represented by individuals from the Adar city region, in the other hand the second grouped all the rest of the 5 regions. There is need to pay particular attention to the Adrar city region chicken population for possible consideration for conservation and selection plan.