Morphologic and Morphometric Study of Non-descript Chickens (Gallus gallus) in Itogon, Benguet

Abstract

The study on the morphologic and morphometric characteristics of non-descript chickens in Itogon, Benguet was conducted on February 2016 to April 2016. Generally, this study was conducted to determine some observations on the phenotypic characteristics of the non-descript chickens. Specifically the study aimed to determine whether there is a distinct and unrecognized chicken in Itogon, Benguet and validate breed identity providing systematic descriptions of phenotype among identified native chickens’ population. A total of 460 native chickens were sampled where 151 are rooster and 309 are hens from the chickens raised in Itogon, Benguet. The morphometric measurements were body weight and body size which include the body length, shank length, and wing span. The morphological characteristics were composed of feather morphology, feather distribution, plumage pattern, plumage color, shank color, eye color, earlobe color, comb type, comb size, and skin color. Results of the study show that six of the established strains were observed in Itogon, Benguet while two unrecognized native chickens were also observed. The existing strains for hens were ‘Banaba’ (14.89%), Bolinao (25.24%), ‘Darag’ (24.27%), Paraoakan (6.80%) and Camarines (28.80%) while the strains for the roosters are ‘Banaba’ (1.32%), ‘Bolinao’ (15.89%), ‘Darag’ (1.99%), ‘Paraoakan’ (60.93%), ‘Labuyo’ (1.99%), ‘Camarines’ (15.23%). The ‘Talisayin’ (1.32%) and ‘Puti’ (1.32%) are the other unrecognized native chickens. It was observed that the predominant native chickens found were ‘Camarines’ female and ‘Paraoakan’ male. From the identified strains, 89 females were ‘Camarines’ and 92 males were ‘Paraoakan’. It was observed that both had normal (100%) feather morphology. Hens had 100 % normal feather distribution while roosters had 83.69% normal feather distribution. Occurrence of 16.30% naked neck in the roosters was observed. The plumage pattern of hens was barred with 97.75% and plain with 2.25% while all roosters were plain (100%). Whitish black plumage color (39.33%) was observed predominant for the hens and the least were whitish dark brown plumage color (2.25%). For roosters, reddish black plumage color (98.91%) was predominant while pure black (1.09%) for the roosters. Majority of the skin colors for both hens and roosters were 55.06% white while 67.42% yellow for the hens, and 54.35% for roosters in the shank colors. White (53.93%) was the commonly observed earlobe color for the hens while red (88.04%) for the roosters. Moreover, single comb type was chiefly observed for the hens (82.04%) and roosters (88.04%) with small (88.76%) size for the hen and medium (47.83%) size for the roosters in the comb sizes. Orange eye color was commonly observed in hens (68.54%) and roosters (64.13%) in the area. On the other hand, study shows that the average body weight of ‘Paraoakan’ was 1.34 ± 1.95 kg, 34.5 ± 40 cm in body length, 6.22 ± 7.59 cm in shank length, 37± 44 cm in chest circumference and a wing span of 28.47 ± 30.4 cm. Also, The average body weight of ‘Camarines’ were 1.15 ± 1.75kgs, 31.77 ± 38.83 cm in body length, 5.78 ± 7.58 cm in shank length, 35.11 ± 42.58 in chest circumference, and 27.11 ± 29.75 cm in wing span. Furthermore, a distinct chicken resembling the colour plumage of the ‘Talisayin’ and ‘Puti’ rooster were observed. The ‘Talisayin’ had normal feather morphology and distribution. The plumge color is bluish - green. The ‘Puti’ were frizzled in feather morphology and has mottled plumage pattern of colour black at the hackles and saddles. Further validation of the unrecognized strain in Itogon, Benguet is recommended. More unrecognized strains of native chicken maybe identified in the validation study.