Principal component analysis of morphological traits in Kadaknath chicken under intensive system in Himachal Pradesh

Dinesh, K., Sankhyan, V., Thakur, D., Kumar, R. and Katoch, S. 2025. Principal Component Analysis of Morphological Traits in Kadaknath Chicken under Intensive System in Himachal Pradesh. Indian Journal of Poultry Science, 60(1): 7-12. The present study aims to explore the relationship among morphological measurements in Kadaknath chicken and identifying the factors that determines body conformation through application of principal component analysis. Morphometric measurements viz. body weight, comb length, keel length, body length, back length, breast girth, radius ulna length, shank length, shank circumference, tail length and breast angle were recorded at 24 week of age. Mean for morphological parameters viz. 24 week body weight, comb length, keel length, body length, back length, breast girth, radius ulna length, shank length, shank circumference, tail length and breast angle were 1215.25 g, 3.11 cm, 10.97 cm, 33.0 cm, 18.33 cm, 28.30 cm, 8.44 cm, 8.57 cm, 3.89 cm, 15.5 cm and 55.57o respectively. Phenotypic correlation among traits were positive and significant and varied from 0.277 (back length and shank circumference) to 0.835 (body weight and breast girth). Among all the correlations, correlation of back length with other morphological measurement were observed to be lowest, while correlation of body weight with other morphological traits were found to be highest. Principal component analysis revealed two principal components and cumulatively accounted for 73.525% of the overall variability present in the parameters. The first principal component (PC1) explained greatest proportion of variance (63.816%) and had high loading on keel length (0.879), breast girth (0.866), body weight (0.841), body length (0.819), tail length (0.683) and shank circumference (0.682). Whereas PC 2 explained only 9.708% of the total variance and showed high loading on back length (0.820), shank length (0.817) and radius ulna length (0.749). Therefore, principal component analysis is an useful method for evaluation that aids in lowering the number of traits required to define the body conformation in Kadaknath chicken.