Evaluation of heterosis, maternal and reciprocal effects on different traits of Fayoumi and White Leghorn crossbreeds

Several studies were conducted on evaluation of heterosis, maternal and reciprocal-effects for different chicken breeds. However, there is a limited information on the heterosis, maternal and reciprocal-effect for crossbreed of Fayoumi and White Leghorn. Therefore; this study was designed to evaluate the heterosis, maternal and reciprocal effects on different traits for crossbreed of Fayoumi and White Leghorn from day-old to age at first egg. A total of six hundred chicks were selected,150 from each genotype and evaluated simultaneously under the same management. The specific and general heterosis, maternal, and reciprocal effects were estimated for all traits. The heterosis of body weight ranged from 3.06 to 21.31% for the main and 1.35 to 14.89% the reciprocal crossbred, which is within the recommended range (-6.5-26.2%). The heterosis of weight gain ranged from -0.07 to 33.03%. The F1 of Fayoumi cocks and White Leghorn hens exhibited a higher positive heterotic recorded for the body weight at first egg. The main and reciprocal crossbreds had negative heterotic for age at first egg and lies within the recommended range of (-25 and 11.5 %). The effect of maternity on body weight was found to be more favorable at brooder age for Fayoumi breed while it was at grower age for White leghorn. Negative estimates were observed for maternal and reciprocal effects on body weight at day-old, 20 weeks, and age at first egg; weight gain at 8-12 and 16- 20 weeks; feed intake at 0-4 and 12-20 weeks; feed conversion efficiency at 0-8 and 16-20 weeks; and egg weight at first egg. Generally, this study concluded that the crosses between WLH hen and Fayoumi cock produced progenies that are more feed efficient and produced heavier eggs than their main crossbred. Keywords: Crossbreed; Fayoumi; Heterosis; Maternal; Reciprocal; White Leghorn