Qualitative traits in animals for selection

• Growth rate – growth rate is normally measured as either body weight or body length. This trait is of great economic importance for all animal species as a faster growth rate speeds up the turnover of production. Improved growth rates show that farmed animals utilize their feed more efficiently through a correlated response.
• Survival rate – The survival rate may take into account the degrees of resistance to diseases. This may also affect the stress response as animals under stress are highly vulnerable to diseases. The stresanimalsal experience could be of biological, chemical, cal, or environmental influence.
• Meat quality – the quality is of great economic importance in the market. Meat quality usually takes into account size, meatiness, percentage of fat, the color of flesh, taste, the shape of the body, ideal oil, etc.
• Age at sexual maturation – The age of maturity in animal species is another very important attribute for farmers as during early maturation the species divert all their energy to gonad production affecting growth and meat production and are more susceptible to health problems.
• Fecundity – The fecundity in animals usually varies according to external factors like environment and nutrition.
• Number of eggs in Chicken –The number of eggs in chicken is based on environmental factors like duration of light, feed supplement, and body condition of the chicken.