Egg production evaluation of laying hens by multivariate analysis

ABSTRACT This study aimed to verify the existence of differences between hens from the Barred Plymouth Rock (PRB) breed and White Plymouth Rock (PRW) breed by multivariate analysis of weekly egg production and cumulative during the years of 1998 and 2010, from the Laboratório de Avicultura (LAVIC) of the Departamento de Zootecnia at the Universidade Federal de Santa Maria (UFSM). For the analysis of the univariate and multivariate variance, the experimental design was completely randomized with two treatments (breed) and 299 repetitions of the PRW breed and 350 of the PRB breed. The parameters analyzed were the weekly productions of eggs per bird from the 21st to the 50th week of age (P21, P22, ..., P50) and production of eggs accumulated being from the 21st to the 25th (PA1), 21st to the 30th (PA2), 21st to the 35th (PA3), 21st to the 40th (PA4), 21st to the 45th (PA5) and 21st to 50th (PA6). Analyzes of univariate and multivariate variance were conducted and the comparison of means were made by "T" Student and Wilks respectively (P < 0, 05). Based on the results, an analysis of the principal components was performed with parameters PA1, PA2, PA4, PA5 and PA6. With the average egg production per family accumulated, a cluster analysis using Euclidean distance and single linkage method (nearest neighbors) was performed. The first two principal components meet the total variation in egg production accumulated from the 21st to 25th, 21st to 30th, 21st to 40th, 21st to 45th and 21st to 50th weeks of age. Most of the phenotypic variation of the layers can be explained by the production of eggs accumulated from the 21st until the 40th week of age, and this variable is highly correlated with total egg production. Families from the PRW and PRB breed form seven distinct groups, but homogeneous by the similarity between them. This allows direct crossings between different groups, in the pursuit for heterosis.