On-Farm Productive and Reproductive Performance of Local, Exotic and Crossbred Chickens in Southern Tigray, North Ethiopia

Abstract

On-farm productive and reproductive performance of local, exotic and crossbred chickens in Southern Tigray, North Ethiopia was conducted to generate base line data that could be potentially used in the chicken selection, improvement program and strategy under typical farmers' management condition. For this purpose, semi-structured questionnaires, participatory rural appraisal (PRA) and field observation were employed. One hundred and eighty household chicken owner respondents (60 per district) were considered for semi-structured questionnaires. Descriptive statistics and General Linear Model (GLM) of SPSS version 20 (2011) were used to analyze the data. Mean number of egg production was higher for exotic breed (235.86±3.02 egg/hen/year) than that of crossbred (51.09±1.97 egg/hen/year) and local breeds (44.71±0.87 egg/hen/year). Moreover, Significant difference (p<0.05) were observed for local and exotic chickens egg production performances among the agro-ecological zones. The overall survival rate of exotic, cross and local chicken breeds were 45.96%, 43.52% and 46.26%, respectively (p>0.05). On the other hand, hatchability rate of local and crossbred chickens were (86.97%) and (80.46%) (p>0.05), respectively. Higher egg production and better reproductive life span is obtained from exotic chickens than local and crossbred ones. Moreover, overall survival rate of exotic and crossbred chickens are found comparable to local chicken. Therefore, introducing Bovans Brown chickens having better productive and reproductive performance is important to enhance productivity. Non-genetic factors should also be considered to improve the performance of existing local chicken population.

Keywords: Productive performance, reproductive performance, local chicken, crossbred chickens, exotic chickens