This study was carried out to generate information on village based indigenous chicken
utilization, management practices, opportunities and challenges, to identify, characterize and
describe the phenotypic variation of indigenous chicken populations. The study was also aimed to
provide preliminary data on the genetic variation of indigenous chicken populations using
microsatellite markers and to compare and evaluate the growth, egg production, reproductive
performances, as well as the rate of survival of indigenous chickens under intensive and extensive
management levels.
Surveys using both purposive and random sampling methods were carried out in four zones of
Northwest Ethiopia to describe the village-based poultry production systems and constraints in
order to design future improvement and conservation strategies. The result of this study showed
that the majority of the respondents were female (74.16 %). This indicated that most of the time
the women, whether in male-headed or female-headed households are responsible for chicken
rearing, while the men are responsible for crop cultivation and other off-farm activities. About
99% of the respondents gave supplementary feeds to their chickens. Night shelter was provided
by almost all farmers in a part of the kitchen (1.36 %) or in the main house (39.07 %), in handwoven
baskets (7.29 %), in bamboo cages (1.51 %) or in a separate shed purpose-made for
chickens (50.77 %). The major causes of death of chickens during the study were seasonal
outbreaks of Newcastle disease (locally known as âfengeleâ) and predation. It is important to
collect and conserve local poultry breeds before they are fully replaced by the so-called improved
exotic chicken breeds. As most of the poultry production is managed by women, focusing on
training and education of women will aid not only the improvement of poultry production but also family management, family planning and the overall living standards of the family and the
community.
In the phenotypic characterization, a total of three hundred chickens were characterized under
field conditions for qualitative and quantitative traits following standard chicken descriptors.
Seven distinct indigenous chicken populations from four administrative zones were identified.
Large phenotypic variability among chicken populations was observed for plumage colour. About
25.49 %, 22.30 %, and 16.40 % of the chickens have white, grayish and red plumage colours,
respectively. The rest showed a considerable heterogeneity regarding plumage colours, like black,
multicoloured, black with white tips, reddish brown and white with red stripes. The following
characteristics were also displayed: plain heads (51.18 %), yellow shanks (64.42 %), and pea
comb (50.72 %). About 97.52 % of the chickens did not have feathers on their legs. Variations
were also observed in quantitative characteristics such as shank length, egg size and body weight
and other reproductive traits exhibited in an intensive management system.
In the genetic analysis, indigenous chicken populations representing seven different areas of
Northwest Ethiopia were studied using microsatellite markers to determine genetic diversity and
relatedness. Three South African chicken lines and two commercial chicken (RIR and WLH)
breeds were included for control. A high genetic diversity was observed overall loci and
populations with a heterozygosity value of 0.76. The largest heterozygosity (0.93) across all
markers was observed in the Mecha chicken population, while the smallest heterozygosity across
all loci (0.66) was observed in the White Leghorn breed. A higher genetic distance (lower genetic
similarity) between the RIR commercial chicken breed and the Ethiopian indigenous chicken
populations were observed compared to RIR and South African fowls. This indicates that the
Ethiopian indigenous chicken populations have still not been highly diluted by the RIR commercial chicken breed either through the extension program or through the regional poultry
breeding and multiplication institutes. The present result indicated that the clustering of the
chicken populations is in accordance with their geographical origin and market places.
Microsatellite markers used in this study were found suitable for the measurement of the genetic
variation in Ethiopian chicken populations. These results can therefore serve as an initial step to
plan the characterization and conservation of indigenous chickens in the Amhara region, Ethiopia.
A study on the performance of indigenous chicken populations in terms of growth, carcass yield,
egg production and egg quality was evaluated under intensive management conditions compared
with the RIR commercial breed. Significant differences were observed among the indigenous
chicken genotypes of Northwest Ethiopia for body weight, feed intake, FCR, mortality percentage
at different phases of growth, indicating the phenotypic variations of the different chicken
ecotypes. The Mecha chickens had the highest growth rate, followed by Guangua and Melo-
Hamusit chickens, indicating that these lines are good for meat production. Analysis of carcass
characteristics has shown that most of the male and female finisher grower chickens have a higher
dressing percentage than the commercial RIR chicken breed managed under intensive
management. Furthermore, data on age at point of lay (days) indicated that indigenous chickens
reached the first egg production stage from 144 to 168 days, while the RIR breed started
producing eggs at 150 days. In general, the current result indicates that the performance of the
indigenous chickens is comparable with the RIR breed under intensive management systems. This
indicates that there is a chance for better performance if proper selection and breeding plan are
designed for indigenous chickens.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:ufs/oai:etd.uovs.ac.za:etd-11162007-080238 |
| Date | 16 November 2007 |
| Creators | Mogesse, Halima Hassen |
| Contributors | Dr E van Marle-Köster, Dr A de Kock, Prof FWC Neser |
| Publisher | University of the Free State |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | en-uk |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.uovs.ac.za//theses/available/etd-11162007-080238/restricted/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to University Free State or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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