T-MAZE PERFORMANCE AND BODY-WEIGHT RELATIONSHIP IN BROILER CHICKS

Two-day-old broiler chicks of both sexes were selected on the basis of their escape performance from a T-maze apparatus, and termed high per formance (H-P), moderate performance (M-P), and low performance (L-P) chicks. Then, the three groups were reared to reach 15 days of age and the gender and body weights measured. A lineal regression analysis sh owed a significant positive correlation between body weight and the pe rformance of chicks, without sex discrimination. Furthermore, two-way ANOVA on the body weight (selection X gender), showed a significant ma in effect of selection. LSD pairwise comparison of means shows that th e H-P male chicks (322.0 g) were 12.7% heavier(p < 0.01) than their L- P counterparts (285.7 g). Similar differences in body weight were obse rved between H-P and L-P female chicks, but they failed to reach the s ignificant level. Thus, the T-maze performance might be a useful selec tion criterion in future breeding programs to obtain birds with a bett er development capacity. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.