Abstract
Carcass yield is an important trait in broiler production which determines the profitability of the enterprise. This research was done to establish the correlation between morphometric traits and carcass yield as well as estimate carcass yield from morphometric traits of ROSS 308 broiler chicken. A total of 50 mixed - sex 8 weeks broiler was used for this study. Morphometric traits studied were wing length (WL), keel length (KL), thigh length (TL), body girth (BG), and body height (BH) whereas carcass yield traits were dress weight, thigh weight, and breast weight being customers most preferred parts. Data collected were subjected to correlation and regression analysis to establish the relationship between morphometric traits and carcass yield as well as the estimation of carcass yield. Results of the relationship between morphometric traits and carcass yield indicated that all the morphometric traits were significantly (p<0.05) and positively correlated with all the carcass yield measured, with the highest correlation being between wing length and breast weight (r= 0.932) while the lowest was the correlation between dressed weight and keel length (r= 0.201) while the simple linear regression indicated that carcass traits could be predicted accurately with all the morphometric traits. However, multiple regression analysis indicated a higher accuracy (using R2 value) when more than one variable was included in the equation. It was concluded that the high and positive correlation between the studied morphometric traits and carcass yield in the ROSS 308 strain of broiler indicates that these morphometric traits are good indicators of carcass traits. It was also revealed that the inclusion of more than one variable gave a better prediction of the carcass traits.