Indigenous chickens play a vital role in providing nutritional security and economic support for the rural and tribal people in tropical countries like India. Ghagus, an indigenous chicken breed of India, was characterized for growth, production, and reproduction (fertility and hatchability) traits over different generations and for carcass and meat quality traits. Heritability, and genetic and phenotypic correlations among growth traits were estimated using mixed model least squares and maximum likelihood methods. Estimates of heritability of growth traits such as bodyweights at different age and 8-week shank length were high (0.32 to 0.39) in initial generation and moderate to high during latest generation (0.20 to 0.42). The correlations of growth traits with 40-week egg production were positive and significant (P < 0.001). There was improvement in 8-week bodyweight (559.3 ± 4.40 g) by 177 g over the generations. The average egg production up to 40 weeks over the generations was 35.66 eggs. There was also a significant (P < 0.001) increase in egg weights over the generations. The fertility (mean 89.3%) ranged from 85.2 to 92.3%. The hatchability on fertile egg set (mean 90.8%) ranged from 86.5 to 94.1% and it was improved by 3.9% over the generations. The carcass and meat quality study revealed that this breed has the lean meat, high protein, and attractive meat color with desirable meat quality characteristics. The study concluded that the Ghagus breed with self-propagation capacity has the potential to be improved as an indigenous meat-type breed to meet the ever-increasing demand for indigenous chickens’ meat in the country.

土着鸡在为印度等热带国家的农村和部落人民提供营养安全和经济支持方面发挥着至关重要的作用。Ghagus 是印度本土的鸡品种，其特征在于不同世代的生长、生产和繁殖（繁殖力和孵化率）特征以及胴体和肉质特征。使用混合模型最小二乘法和最大似然法估计生长性状之间的遗传力、遗传和表型相关性。生长性状的遗传力估计值，例如不同年龄的体重和 8 周小腿长度，在初始一代中较高（0.32 至 0.39），而在最新一代（0.20 至 0.42）则为中等至高。生长性状与40周产蛋量呈正相关且显着（P < 0.001)。8 周体重 (559.3 ± 4.40 g) 在几代人中增加了 177 g。几代人长达 40 周的平均产蛋量为 35.66 个。还有一个显着的（P < 0.001) 代数增加蛋重。生育率（平均 89.3%）在 85.2% 到 92.3% 之间。受精卵组的孵化率（平均 90.8%）在 86.5% 到 94.1% 之间，并且在几代中提高了 3.9%。胴体和肉质研究表明，该品种具有瘦肉、高蛋白、诱人的肉色和理想的肉质特征。该研究得出的结论是，具有自我繁殖能力的 Ghagus 品种具有改进为本土肉型品种的潜力，以满足该国对本土鸡肉不断增长的需求。