Hemoglobin types in various populations of chickens.

Cellulose acetate electrophoresis of hemoglobin from 16 exotic breeds, five commercial broiler strains, nine commercial layer strains, a population of Gallus gallus and the Athens randombred population revealed only the normal hemoglobin type, consisting of one major and one slow-moving minor hemoglobin component. The same mutant and heterozygous types (in addition to normal) as were previously observed in the Athens Canadian (A-C) randombred population were observed in the Ottawa Meat Control population, from which the A-C population originated. Since the A-C population has been maintained separately from the Ottawa Meat Control since 1958, these results show that the hemoglobin mutant characterized in the A-C population in 1968 was not of recent origin, but has been segregating in the population since its construction from the Ottawa Meat Control.