Abstract
A study was conducted to determine the relationship between body weight and zoometric parameters in Nigeria local, Nicholas White and their reciprocal crossbred turkey poults. A total of 374 birds belonging to four genotypes (58 Nicholas White x Nicholas White, 117 Nicholas White x Nigerian-Local, 72 Nigerian-Local x Nicholas White, 127 Nigerian Local x Nigerian Local) were used for the study. The birds were fed on starter mash (28% CP, 3100KcalME/Kg) for six weeks and grower mash (24% CP, 3000KcalME/Kg) from 7 20 weeks of age. Body weight (BWT) of the birds was recorded at 8 and 16 weeks old. The zoometric traits considered were: Body Length (BL), Shank Length (SL), Thigh Length (TL), Breast girth (BG), Keel Length (KL), Wing span (WS), Wing Length (WL) and Shank thickness (ST)]. Correlation and regression analysis was used to establish the relationship between poults body weight and zoometric traits. The estimates of correlation between body weight and zoometric traits for the Nigerian Local, Nicholas White and their reciprocal crossbreds were significant (p<0.05) at 8th (r=0.55-0.95, 0.52-0.93, and 0.41-0.79, respectively) and 16th (r =0.48-0.51, 0.49-0.83 and 0.41-0.77, respectively) weeks old poults. Significant (p<0.05) correlations were obtained among the 8 zoometric traits considered in the four genotypes at 8th and 16th weeks of age. Regression analysis showed that there were relationship between body weight and most of the zoometric traits considered. The coefficient of determination (R2) showed a wide variation (1.46 to 90.31%) in the relative contribution of each of the eight zoometric measurements to the body weight of bird. The coefficient of determination showed that BG is the best predictor of bodyweight in purebred NL x NL and NW x NW poults and in 16 weeksold crossbred NL x NW turkey poults.

Key words: Crossbred Turkey, Zoometric Traits, Correlation, Regression