Comparative Study on Growth Patterns of 25 Commercial Strains of Korean Native Chicken

Prediction of growth patterns of commercial chicken strains is important. It can provide visual assessment of growth as function of time and prediction body weight (BW) at a specific age. The aim of current study is to compare the three nonlinear functions (i.e., Logistic, Gompertz, and von Betalanffy) for modeling the growth of twenty five commercial Korean native chicken (KNC) strains reared under a battery cage system until 32 weeks of age and to evaluate the three models with regard to their ability to describe the relationship between BW and age. A clear difference in growth pattern among 25 strains were observed and classified in to the groups according to their growth patterns. The highest and lowest estimated values for asymptotic body weight (C) for 3H and 5W were given by von Bertalanffy and Logistic model 4629.7 g for 2197.8 g respectively. The highest estimated parameter for maturating rate (b) was given by Logistic model 0.249 corresponds to the 2F and lowest in von Bertalanffy model 0.094 for 4Y. According to the coefficient of determination ($R^2$) and mean square of error (MSE), Gompertz and von Bertalanffy models were suitable to describe the growth of Korean native chicken. Moreover, von Bertalannfy model was well described the most of KNC growth with biologically meaningful parameter compared to Gompertz model.