Assessment of Genetic Diversity in Nigerian Local Chicken Population Based on Haematological Parameters was studied using one hundred and fifty (150) chickens comprising of fifty (50) Normal feathered, Frizzled feathered and Naked neck local birds were used for the study. The chickens were reared under deep litter system where the animalswere allowed to acclimatize for four (4) weeks.Males and females were reared separately to avoid mating during the research period.Blood samples were collected from the 150 birds by the lower side of brachial vein of the wing using 2ml disposal syringes and the blood was collected into a test-tube containing EDTA for haematological parameters analysis . The results revealed significant (p<0.05) difference in packed cell volume (PCV), Mean Corpuscular Volume (MCV), Mean Corpuscular Haemoglobin (MCH), Mean Corpuscular Haemoglobin Concentration (MCHC), White Blood Cell (WBC), Hetrophil (HETRO), Lymphocytes (LYMP) and Thrombocytes (THROM) . The normal feathered (NF) chicken was significantly (p<0.05) superior in PCV, MCV, MCH, MCHC and WBC as 22.2%, 134.62 fl, 50.78 pg, and 13.62 x109/l compared to naked neck (NN) and frizzled feathered (FF) as 16.58% and 9.68%, 110.44 fland 137.84 fl, and 5.92 x109/l and 9.90 x109/l respectively. The results of classification and predicted group membership of chicken population are NN, NF and FF. The results showed that the populations of the three strains of chicken used in this study showed 100% true to type for NN, NF and FF. The results showed that the Malahonobis distance between NN andFF had the highest value of 0.89, while the least was between NF and FF, 0.43. These haematological parameters are WBC, THROM, LYMP, PCV, Basophils, Eosinophils and Neutrophiles. Thus, these are the most powerful discriminating haematological parameters among the population of the three strains. The results revealed that the percentage of shared variance (94.2) of function 1, is higher than 5.8 of function 2. The canonical correlation of function 1 (0.969) is also higher than 0.697 of function 2. The genetic variations that exist based on haematological parameter of the three strains of chicken in Nigeria could be explored in future breeding programmes.

Keywords: Chicken, Haematology, Genetic diversity, Strains