Insulin-like Growth Factor-1 Gene Polymorphism and Its Effect on Egg Quality Traits of Funaab Alpha, Kuroiler and Sasso Chicken Reared in Hot Humid Tropics

AbstractA study was conducted on the effect of gene polymorphism ofInsulin like Growth Factor-1 (IGFI)on egg quality traits in five chicken genotype. A total of 250 chicken comprising 150 FUNAAB-Alpha (50 Normal feather, 50 Naked neck and 50 Frizzle feather), 50 Kuroiler and 50 Sasso were used for this experiment. The chicks were generated through artificial insemination and were raised to maturity on deep litter system. At point of lay, 30 hens per genotype were selected and transferred into a battery cage of one unit per bird. Data was collected on the egg quality traits, 30 eggs for each genotype was collected, the following parameters were determined: egg (weight, length, width), shape index, shell thickness, albumen (height, weight), yolk weight and color, ratio of (shell, yolk, albumen) and Haugh unit. All collected data was subject to analysis of variance using a completely randomized design, of which genotype was the interest factor. At 16 weeks, 1ml of blood was collected from each hen and extraction of genomic DNA from the blood was done. PCR was conducted using the pair of primer and condition as described by Nagaraga,et al. (2000). The PCR amplicons were digested usingPstIrestriction enzymes following the manufacturer’s procedure. The resulting fragments were analyzed using GenAnalyzer (GenAlEx 6.502) was used for the genetic diversity of theIGFIlocus. This data was subject to the PROC GLM of SAS 9.2. Results showed the chicken genotypes significantly (P<0.05) affect all the egg-quality traits except the shell weight, yolk ratio and albumen ratio. TheIGFIgene polymorphism had no significant effect (P>0.05) on egg quality traits for except the egg length and egg width.