Genetic parameters, reciprocal cross differences, and age-related heterosis of egg-laying performance in chickens

Table 3 Estimates of genetic and phenotypic correlations for egg weight traits at different ages (in weeks)

Trait	FEWt	EWt28	EWt32	EWt36	EWt40	EWt44	EWt48	EWt52	EWt56	EWt60	EWt64	EWt68	EWt72	EWt76	EWt86	EWt100
FEWt		0.74	0.83	0.75	0.77	0.77	0.78	0.68	0.76	0.78	0.79	0.80	0.75	0.80	0.76	0.72
EWt28	0.41		0.95	0.92	0.90	0.87	0.85	0.84	0.83	0.83	0.88	0.85	0.82	0.83	0.76	0.82
EWt32	0.48	0.61		1.00	1.00	0.94	0.95	0.93	0.89	0.91	0.97	0.96	0.94	0.96	0.86	0.92
EWt36	0.44	0.62	0.71		0.98	0.94	0.93	0.92	0.91	0.89	0.94	0.94	0.92	0.93	0.83	0.93
EWt40	0.44	0.59	0.69	0.77		1.00	0.97	0.96	0.95	0.93	0.98	0.96	0.96	0.99	0.92	0.97
EWt44	0.39	0.53	0.62	0.70	0.73		0.99	0.98	0.98	0.97	0.98	0.99	0.96	0.99	0.92	0.97
EWt48	0.40	0.55	0.64	0.72	0.76	0.75		0.99	1.00	1.00	1.00	0.99	0.99	0.99	0.94	0.98
EWt52	0.36	0.53	0.61	0.68	0.72	0.71	0.76		0.99	0.99	0.99	0.98	0.97	0.99	0.92	0.99
EWt56	0.35	0.53	0.62	0.68	0.72	0.70	0.76	0.77		0.99	1.00	1.00	0.98	0.99	0.97	1.00
EWt60	0.37	0.52	0.60	0.64	0.68	0.66	0.69	0.71	0.72		0.99	0.97	1.00	0.99	0.96	1.00
EWt64	0.38	0.52	0.59	0.67	0.69	0.67	0.72	0.73	0.75	0.72		0.99	1.00	1.00	0.96	0.98
EWt68	0.35	0.49	0.56	0.64	0.64	0.64	0.70	0.69	0.72	0.69	0.76		1.00	1.00	0.98	0.98
EWt72	0.31	0.45	0.51	0.57	0.59	0.56	0.62	0.62	0.65	0.62	0.70	0.70		0.99	0.99	0.97
EWt76	0.36	0.53	0.57	0.61	0.63	0.58	0.66	0.64	0.65	0.63	0.72	0.71	0.67		0.99	0.98
EWt86	0.36	0.44	0.52	0.54	0.56	0.52	0.60	0.58	0.62	0.56	0.64	0.61	0.64	0.72		0.98
EWt100	0.29	0.40	0.47	0.49	0.47	0.47	0.54	0.53	0.53	0.55	0.56	0.55	0.54	0.57	0.60

Genetic correlations are above the diagonal and phenotypic correlations are below the diagonal. Standard errors ranged from 0.01 to 0.12 for genetic correlations, and from 0.01 to 0.03 for phenotypic correlations
FEWt weight for the first three egg, EWtX egg weight at X weeks of age

ISSN: 1297-9686