ON-STATION MORPHOLOGICAL FEATURES OF IRAQI INDIGENOUS CHICKENS

This study was conducted to characterize Iraqi indigenous chicken breeds morphologically. Six breeds named Barred (BA), Brown (BR), Black (BL), White (WH), white neck-naked (WH-NA), and Brown neck-naked (BR-NA), reared on-station were studied. Data on morphological properties were collected from 300 females and 150 males at 33 weeks of age randomly chosen from the base popula-tion. Descriptive statistics, frequency, and cross-tabulation were used to analyze the qualitative morphological variables. A two-way analysis of variance was con-ducted to analyze the effect of breed and sex on quantitative measurements. All chickens (100%) exhibited normal feather morphology and no silky or curly (frizzle) was observed. The distribution of the plumage is mainly characteristic normal, four breeds were shown normal and two breeds were characteristics as naked-neck, (66.7% normal and 33.3% naked-neck). The white, black, and barred breeds showed similarities between hens and roosters except for the male brown breed where colors are combined with other feather colors, mainly on wings, back, and tail. Skin color was mainly white and occurred in five breeds (P=100 percent) except brown naked-neck appeared in 66.7% of the population as red skin color. Males and females of BA chickens exhibited significantly higher body circumference, body length, shank length, neck length, and wingspan compared to other breeds. The lowest body characteristics were shown in WH, WH-NA, and BR-NA. The average BW of adultmales and females varied signifi-cantly among the populations. Females of BA populations.