IMPROVEMENT AND UTILIZATION OF GENETIC RESOURCES IN NATIVE CHICKEN : RECIPROCAL CROSS BETWEEN TAIWAN COUNTRY CHICKEN AND SINGLE COMB WHITE LEGHORN

Reciprocal crosses were conducted between three strains of Taiwan Country chickens, developed in the National Chung-Hsing University, and two strains of Single Comb White Leghorns, developed in the Taiwan Livestock Research Institute. Traits studied were growing performances, laying performances, egg quality traits and traits concerning disease resistance, including resistance to Marek's disease virus and immune responses to Newcastle disease virus vaccine and to sheep red blood cell. Results indicated that laying performances of Taiwan country chickens were much inferior to White Leghorns, but they matured earlier, their eggs had better shell strength and larger proportion of yolk, and their general disease resistance was much better than White Leghorns. Heterosis were found in laying performances and egg quality traits. The heterosis in laying traits was so large that the hybrid laid as many eggs and as large eggs as did pure strains of White Leghorns. Strategies on the improvement of native chickens and the utilization of genetic merits of native chickens were also discussed.