ABSTRACT
This study was conducted to provide an unbiased description of egg quality traits of four indigenous chicken genotypes in Edo, Nigeria. 180 eggs were used for the study. The eggs were initially weighed individually using a sensitive electronic weighing balance with accuracy of 0.001g. Data were collected on egg weight, egg length, egg width, egg shell weight, egg shape index and egg shell thickness. Mean computational values of the data were taken using Statistical Procedure for Social Sciences (SPSS) and data were subjected to principal component analysis. Egg quality traits had three principal components (PC) that contributed 91.27% of the total variability of the original six egg characteristics tested. The three principal components had Eigen values of 2.59 (PC1), 1.66 (PC2) and 1.24 (PC3). Egg weight accounted for 43.08% of the total variance, Egg length accounted for 27.58% of the total variance, while egg width accounted for 20.62% of the total variance. The present principal component analysis provided a means for objective description of the interdependence in the six egg quality characteristics of naked neck, frizzle feathered, normal feather and the short flight feathered indigenous chicken genotypes.
KEYWORDS: Chickens genotypes, principal component, Egg, quality traits, Eigen values, Indigenous chickens