Phenotypic Characteristics of Legund Chickens in West Java, Indonesia

Phenotypic Characteristics of

Legund

Chickens in West Java,

Indonesia

Jakaria*, Maria Ulfah, & Desha Anandya Putri

Faculty of Animal Science, Bogor Agricultural University, Bogor, 16680, Indonesia

*e-mail: jakaria@ipb.ac.id

Introducton

The Legund chcken s the rare Indonesan natve chcken that s naturally devod of feathers on ts neck due to the autosomal ncomplete domnant naked neck (Na) gene. Ths gene s not only responsble for defeatherng the neck regon, but also restrcts the featherng areas around the body by 20-30% n the heterozygous (Nana) and up to 40% n the homozygous (NaNa) genotype. Due to the assocaton wth the reducton n feather coverage, mproved heat tolerance and better adaptablty, survvablty, and productblty under heat stress condtons, the Na can be used as a marker gene that s economcally mportant n modern breedng system. However, the characterstc of ths chcken has been poorly characterzed to date n Indonesa due to ther small populaton number, very lmted data of ther phenotypc characterstcs, and bologcal parameters, and very lmted data on ther current utlzaton. Therefore, the purposes of ths study were to observe the phenotypc characterstcs, the nfluence of mported breed and the purty level of natve gene of the Legund chcken populatons cared under tradtonal farmng system n West Java. The research fndngs wll be very mportant to provde base lne data that would be useful for the desanng ther conservaton program and mprovement of utlty development.

Materal and Methods

ntrogresson rate of mported breeds (Rhode Island Red, White Leghorn and Barred Plymouth Rock), and purty level of natve gene were calculated based on Nshda

et al. (1980).

Results and Dscusson

The control of gene consttuton on phenotypc characterstc of Legund chcken ether on Subang or Bogor Dstrct populaton was E+ B_ ss Id_ P. However, we ddn’t fnd a sngle comb (pp) of Legund chckens on Subang Dstrct populatons (Table 1).

Table 1. Frequency Dstrbuton of Phenotype Characterstcs nle 1. Frequency Dstrbuton of Phenotype Characterstcs n Legund Chckens found n Subang and Bogor Dstrct Populatons, West Java, Indonesa

Phenotypc

Characterstcsaracterstcscterstcsterstcscs Locc

Genotypesypespess

(Phenotypes)Phenotypes)enotypes)ypes)pes)s)) Geneses

Gene Frequency

Feather feature B > b B_ (Barred) qB 0.96 0.89

(Sex lnkage) Bb (No barred) qb 0.04 0.11

Feather shne S > s S_ (Slver) qS 0.37 0.21

(Sex lnkage) ss (Gold) qs 0.63 0.79

Shank color Id > d Id (Whte / Yellow) qId 0.65 0.52

(Sex lnkage) d (Black / Grey) qd 0.35 0.48

Comb type P > p P_ (Pea) qP 1.00 0.53

pp (Sngle) qp 0.00 0.47

domnated by the barred feather, ether on Subang Dstrct or Bogor Dstrct, 0.96 and 0.89, respectvely (Table 2). Horst (1988) stated that n homozygous condton, naked neck chckens have a completely bare neck whereas n the heterozygous condton they have a bare neck wth a tuft of feathers. Snce Na s a major ‘marker’ gene dentfed by qualtatve crtera (vsual, bochemcal or serologcal) that may show assocaton wth quanttatve trats, ether because of pleotropy (Johnson and Rendel, 1968), or because of lnkage wth other genes (Crawford, 1990), therefore the further nvestgaton of sex lnkage genes on that chckens should be done based on a complete breedng record.

Table 2. The Comparson of Introgresson Rate of Imported Breeds (Q) Rhode Island Red

(SR), Whte Leghorn (WL) and Barred Plymouth Rock (BR) to Legund Chckens

n Subang and Bogor Dstrct Populaton

We also predct that the the gene of Barred Plymouth Rock manly nfluenced the Legund chckens n both populaton. The ntrogresson rate of Barred Plymouth Rock (QBR_{) to the Legund chckens populatons was hghest (0.94) followed by}

Whte leghorn (QWL_{) and Rhode Island Red (Q}SR_{) (Table 2). Ths fndng s congruent}

wth the Legund chckens that s predomnated by the barred feather (B_) (Table 1), as a specal character of Barred Plymouth Rock. We then predcts that the Legund

chckens are prmarly developed by the farmers as meat producers, event n the feld the farmers utlze ths chckens for dual purposes of meat and egg producers. Further study on the morphologcal features and productvtes of the chckens should be done to predct ther producton potency.

mantan Na gene must be set up to support the the conservaton and utlzaton of

Legund chckens n Indonesa.

Conclusons

The control of gene consttuton on phenotypc characterstc of Legund chcken ether on Subang or Bogor Dstrct populaton was E+ B_ ss Id_ P. The ntrogresson rate of Barred Plymouth Rock (QQBR_{) to the Legund chckens populatons was hghest}

(0.94) followed by Whte leghorn (QWL_{) and Rhode Island Red (Q}SR_{). The purty}

level of natve gene n Legund chcken at Subang Dstrct populaton was lower (35%) than that of Bogor Dstrct populaton (48%). Mantanng the Na gene s needed to support the conservaton efforts and mprovement of utlzaton of Legund

chckens n Indonesa.

Acknowledgement

The authors thank the local government of Lvestock Department Servces of West Java for supportng the annual populaton data of local chckens n Indonesa. The authors also thank to the farmers for a very good cooperaton and helpng durng feld survey.

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