Incidence of split feathers and its association with carcass, conformation and bilateral asymmetry traits in male broiler chicken

The study was conducted on broiler population to evaluate the incidence of split feathers and its association with carcass, conformation and bilateral asymmetry traits. The incidence was higher in growth line indicating that the selection for body weight increased the incidence of split feathers by 8.9%. Males in both growth and production line have higher incidence of split feathers by 51.2 and 31.4% respectively than females indicating sexual dimorphism for the trait. The conformation traits were more developed in birds having higher scores of split feathers. The normal feathered birds were having lowest live, dressed, and eviscerated and heart weight indicating the positive association between carcass traits and feather splitting. The asymmetry measures of directional, fluctuating and relative asymmetry have non significant differences between the different feathering scores in the traits measured indicating lack of association between asymmetry and split feathering.