Variation in the three-week body temperature of broilers and Athens-Canadian randombred chickens.

The body temperatures of commercial broilers and an Athens-Canadian randombred population (ACRB), correlations of body temperature with BW, and a sire family heritability (h2) estimate in the ACRB population were obtained. The body temperature of the broilers was significantly lower than that of the ACRB chicks (41.44 versus 41.77 C). Correlations between BW and body temperature were very low for both the broiler and ACRB chicks (.04 and .06). A sire-component h2 estimate of .19 was calculated for 3-wk body temperature in the ACRB population.