Abstract 



The NE-6 Regional Poultry Breeding Project began July 1, 

 1954. The project was a cooperative research effort by poultry 

 scientists of the Northeastern States and was designed to solve 

 some of the basic genetic and physiological problems facing 

 poultry breeders in the region. The project was revised in 1958 

 and again in 1961 to take into account the progress that had 

 been made. The project was completed in 1963. 



Several valuable contributions to poultry breeding research 

 were realized. The development, availability and use of random- 

 bred control populations have been of major importance to 

 poultry breeding research and to the poultry industry. Many of 

 the contributing projects provided new knowledge of basic 

 physiological systems of the domestic fowl including blood 

 pressure, serum and yolk cholesterol, and plasma proteins. In- 

 teresting new information was found on plumage color genes 

 and their relationships with other traits. The research on biol- 

 ogical selection indexes provided a unique and imaginative ap- 

 proach to multitrait selection. The Regional project stimulated 

 new poultry breeding research and resulted in additional ex- 

 changes of ideas and experimental findings among poultry sci- 

 entists throughout the region. The accomplishments of the pro- 

 ject have been published in 36 scientific publications, 16 ab- 

 stracts and 9 theses. 



