Path Analysis For Determination of Relationships Between Some Carcass Parts and Carcass Weight of Ross 308 Broilers

Abstract

Direct, indirect and total effects of some carcass parts on carcass weight of Ross 308 broilers were investigated by using path analysis in this study. Feather-sexed 1day old chicks were fed for 42 days. At the end of the feeding period, data of carcass weight (CW), breast weight (BW), thigh weight (TW) and wing weight (WW) were obtained from totally 36 birds (18female-18male), slaughtered at 42 days old. The results indicated that BW, TW and WW had statistically important effects on CW of the broilers. Total and direct effects of TW and BW were higher than the effect of WW. However the indirect effect of WW on CW was higher than the effect of BW. Based on the data, it can be concluded that breast and thigh weights have a high correlation with carcass weight but wing weight also can be used for predicting total carcass weight due to the indirect effect on CW.