Patent ID: 7666590

Claim:
A method of screening a chicken to determine that the chicken is more likely to have a lean phenotype or a fat phenotype, the method comprising: a) obtaining a biological sample from the chicken, wherein the biological sample comprises nucleic acids from the chicken; and b) detecting in the nucleic acids the presence of a THRSP α1β1/α2β2 genotype or a THRSP α1β2/α1β2 genotype, wherein the THRSP α1 allele is identified by detecting the presence of SEQ ID NO: 1 in the nucleic acids, the THRSP α2 allele is identified by detecting the deletion of nucleotides 261-269 from SEQ ID NO: 1 in the nucleic acids, the THRSP β1 allele is identified by detecting SEQ ID NO: 3 in the nucleic acids, and the THRSP β2 allele is identified by detecting the deletion of nucleotides 228-233 from SEQ ID NO: 3 in the nucleic acids; and c) correlating the presence of the α1β1/α2β2 genotype with an increased likelihood of the chicken having a lean phenotype, or correlating the presence of the α1β2/α1β2 genotype with an increased likelihood of the chicken having a fat phenotype, wherein a chicken with a lean phenotype has less abdominal fat weight and a lower percentage of body weight that is fat, and a chicken with a fat phenotype has more abdominal fat weight and a higher percentage of body weight that is fat.