Canonical Correlation Analysis Relating Age At First Egg, Bodyweight At First Egg And Weight Of First Egg With Egg Production At Different Periods In A Strain Of Layer Type Chicken

The relationship between age at first egg (AFE), bodyweight at first egg (BWFE), weight of first egg (WFE), with egg numbers recorded at 20–28 weeks (EN1), 28 – 35 weeks (EN2) and 35 – 42 weeks (EN3) was evaluated using canonical correlation analysis. Two hundred layers contributed the data used for the study. Estimated canonical correlations between three pairs of canonical variates were 0.667, 0.247 and 0.047. Only the canonical correlation between the first pair of canonical variates (0.667) was significant (p<0.001) based on the likelihood ratio test. Canonical weights and loadings from canonical correlation analysis showed that weight of first egg had the largest contribution to the variation in egg number at the three different periods compared with AFE and BWFE. Therefore, WFE could be used as a selection criterion for selecting good performance layers in terms of egg number.