Least square analysis of juvenile body weight and conformational traits in coloured synthetic broiler male line (PB-1)

The coloured synthetic broiler male (PB-1) line was evaluated for the juvenile traits to identify the fixed effects in the present study. The least squares (LSM) and standard error (SE) for juvenile growth and conformational traits were evaluated statistically to identify the fixed effects. For all the juvenile traits till fifth week of age, the statistical model included the fixed effect of hatch (two levels) alone, whereas, for the traits measured after fifth week of age, both hatch and sex were included as fixed effects. LSM (±SE) for the traits body weight (BW) at day-old, BW2, BW4, BW5 and BW6 with hatch as a fixed effect were 41.59±0.14, 184.39±1.39, 604.66±4.29, 867.90±5.17 and 1105.84±6.50 g, respectively and the keel and shank lengths were 75.30±0.20 and 77.59±0.19 mm, respectively. Significant differences were noticed for the juvenile body weights and conformational traits upto fifth week of age with hatch and sex as fixed effects. Significant influence of hatch and sex effects were seen on the primary trait of selection i.e., fifth week body weight.