DEVELOPING A HYBRIDIZED CHICKEN FOR RURAL POULTRY

Abstract

The present breeding study was planned to cross the various indigenous breeds for developing a hybrid rural breed which can live as a scavenger bird under the harsh rural conditions with improved economic traits. The study was conducted in three independent phases. In first phase, breeds comparison was performed for Desi, Fayoumi and Rhode Island Red chickens. Maximum hatchability was recorded in Fayoumi followed by RIR and Desi. The average day old weight was seemed highest in RIR, intermediate in Desi and lowest in Fayoumi. The poor feed conversion was observed in Desi breed and better feed conversion was recorded in RIR breed. The early age of sexual maturity was recorded in Fayoumi followed by RIR and Desi. The RIR chickens had highest egg production followed by Fayoumi and Desi chickens. The all internal egg quality parameters were significantly higher in RIR than Fayoumi and Desi breeds except shell and yolk thickness. In second phase, the performance of RIR and Fayoumi chickens were examined with their reciprocal crossbred chicks. Higher hatchability was noticed in crossbred chickens than their parents. The average day old weight was highest in RIR and FIRI (Fayoumi male × RIR female) followed by RIFI (RIR male × Fayoumi female) and Fayoumi. The average weight gain and daily feed intake was higher in FIRI chickens than RIFI crossbred chickens. The better FCR and liviliability were observed in both crossbred chickens during growing phase. Morphologically the two crossbred chicken (RIFI and FIRI) showed variation in all characters. The dominant skin colour for both crossbred chickens was white while the egg shell colour was chalky white. The major feather colour in RIFI was brown with xxblack spots, while black & white in FIRI. Shank colour was 100% yellow in RIFI and 100% black in FIRI. The dominant comb type in the whole ecotypes was the single one. The heterotic effects on body weights were significant in both crossbred chickens except at day old and gradually increased to 10.27% at 3 weeks in RIFI and 19.45% at 8 weeks in FIRI and then declined to 5.50% at 4 weeks in RIFI and 8.70% at 9 weeks of age in FIRI. Results for reciprocal crosses in this research study revealed that FIRI had high heterotic percentage at 10 weeks of age to get hybrid vigor in growth traits. These results may helpful for the poultry breeders to cross these two breeds (Fayoumi X RIR). The egg production was highest in FIRI followed by RIFI, RIR and Fayoumi chickens respectively. In conclusion, the crossbred chickens of Fayoumi male and RIR female (FIRI) showed better performance in all traits than crossbred chickens of RIR male and Fayoumi female (RIFI). On the basis of above results, crossbred females of FIRI were retained and mated to the third breed (Whitel Leghorn) for further improvement in production performance in the subsequent trial. In third phase, crossbred chicken with proposed name; Rural Leghorn (RLH) breed was developed by crossing White Leghorn male with FIRI females. The progeny as RLH chickens contain White Leghorn (50%), RIR (25%) and Fayoumi (25%). In this phase, according to research plan, only growth data regarding RLH-G1was also recorded and compared with performance of FIRI, RIFI and RLH breeds. The average day old weight was highest in RLH followed by RLH-G1, FIRI and RIFI. The results showed that RLH and RLH-G1 crossbred chickens had lowest mortality and were shown heavier in weight at 20 weeks of age. The dominant skin colour for the crossbred chicken was white for RLH and xxiRLH-GI while the egg shell colour was light brown in RLH. The major feather colour in RLH was white whereas in RLH- G1 ratio of white and colored birds was 75:25 respectively. Shank colour was 100% yellow in RLH whereas 84% white in RLH-G1. The heterotic effects on body weights were significant in both crossbred chickens except at day old and gradually increased to 8.55% at 7 weeks in RLH and 26.5 in RLH-G1 and then declined to 4.28% at 9 weeks in RLH where as 22.67 in RLH-G1. The highest egg production was found in RLH (72.2%) followed by FIRI (60%), RIFI (54%), RIR (41%) and the Fayoumi chickens (36%). As far as the rate of lay (no. of eggs per hen) is concerned, RLH scored higher (253) than those of FIRI (198), RIFI (178), RIR (141) and Fayoumi (123) chickens. In conclusion, newly evolved RLH chicken gained better body weight than Fayoumi and Desi, moderate than RIR and FIRI chickens with lower mortality. The RLH chicken showed better performance in all egg traits than parents and other crossbred chickens of RIR male and Fayoumi female. The growth performance of RLH- G1chicken was better than reciprocal crosses of RIR and Fayoumi chicken and at par with RLH chicken.