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Abstract
1. Four breeding groups of Rhode Island Red and White Leghorn domestic fowl (RIR (♂) × RIR (♀), RIR (♂) × WL (♀), WL (♂) × RIR (♀) and WL (♂) × WL (♀)) were compared for fertility, hatchability, and their post-insemination sustainability, egg weight loss during incubation and uncovered yolk in abdominal cavity of dead in shell in order to understand the problems associated with the RIR breed in these respects.
2. Crossing RIR (♂) with WL (♀) or in reverse sex combinations did not improve fertility in comparison to pure RIR chickens and all these groups were less fertile than the pure WL.
3. Unlike fertility, hatchability in RIR improved with the change to either sex partner of the WL breed but the WL (♂) × RIR (♀) combination was similar to the pure WL (97·72 and 97·12%, respectively). In contrast, crossing RIR (♂) with WL (♀) resulted in an improvement (86·67%) as compared to pure RIR (76·67%) but still lower than the pure WL and WL (♂) × RIR (♀) cross.
4. Egg weight loss during incubation was more (20·16%) in pure RIR as compared to RIR (♂) × WL (♀) (17·13%), followed by WL (♂) × RIR (♀) (10·28%) and pure WL (9·57%).
5. There were more dead-in-shell embryos with yolks outside their abdominal cavity in pure RIR and their crosses as compared to pure WL breeds.
6. Fertility was sustained for longer in WL than other combinations with post-artificial insemination using constant number of spermatozoa. Fertility after a week of insemination tended to decrease more rapidly than hatchability on a fertile egg basis.
7. It is concluded that both sexes are responsible for the poor fertility in RIR but the female is responsible for poor hatchability and this poor performance is mainly due to greater egg weight loss during incubation.