Morphological and Morphometric Study of Non-descript Chicken (Gallus gallus) in Tublay, Benguet

Abstract

A total of 430 native chickens, 327 of which, were hens and 103 were roosters was used in the study to determine the morphological characteristics and morphometric measurements on non-descript chickens. The study was conducted in five barangays of Tublay, Benguet from February 06 to April 30, 2016. The morphometric were body weight and body length which include the shank color, wing span and chest circumference. On the other hand morphological characteristics were feather morphology and feather distribution it includes the eye color, earlobe color, shank color, skin color, plumage color, plumage pattern, comb type and comb size. Results showed that all the six strains of native chicken identified by Bondoc, (1998) are being raised in Tublay , Benguet. The strain with the most number was the Banaba (39.07%), followed by the Bolinao (15.12%), Camarines (12.56%), Paraoakan (10%), Labuyo (6.28%) and Darag (5.82%) with the least number. Chickens which could not fit the description of the established strains are classified based on plumage color as follows: Itim (4.42%), Lasak (3.95%) and Talisayin (2.79%). The predominant native chickens in hens were Banaba and Paraoakan in roosters. Of the 162 Banaba and 21 Paraoakan it was observed that (100%) normal feather morphology and distribution. In terms of plumage pattern laced (60.49%) was predominant in hens and plain (39.51%) with the least number while 100% plain in rooster. The plumage color were (43.21%) wheaten predominant in hen and white (3.70%) with the least number while in rooster the predominant were reddish black (80.95%) and (13.95%) reddish brown with the least number. It shows that the skin color in hen were (86.42%) white and (13.58%) yellow while in rooster the predominant color were (66.67%) white and yellow (33.33%) with the least number . The shank colos in hens were (29.01%) yellow and green (5.56%) with the least number while in roostes (90.48%) yellow and (41.76%) green. The eye color of the native chicken in hen was (75.71%) brown and (8.57%) red while in rooster (66.67) brown and (14.29%) red with the least number. It also observed that the earlobe color (72.22%) red were predominant to hesn and (27.78%) white red with the least number while in rooster (85.71%) red and (14.29%) white red. In comb type it was observed that single comb were predominant to roosters and hens while the comb size were small size were predominant to hens and medium size were predominant in rooster. In the morphometric characteristics of native chicken rooster Labuyo weighing 2.01 kg is the heaviest among the roosters while the Bolinao hens with a mean of 1.64 kg are the heaviest among the seven native chickens observed. The longest body length in rooster was observed in the Labuyo with 44.25 cm while in hens was registered by the Bolinao which was 38.95 cm . The Bolinao has the longest shank of 8.67cm while the Labuyo hen has the longest shank of 7.40cm. In term of wing span, Darag with 52.39 cm has the widest wing span in rooster while Bolinao hen has the wide wing span of 45.73cm. The larger chest circumference was Banaba with 32.67cm in rooster while a Bolinao hen has the largest chest circumference of 28.85cm. All body measurements in hens were generally smaller than the body measurements of the roosters.