Egg production performance of local and White Leghorn hens under intensive and rural household conditions in Ethiopia

Solomon Demeke

Jimma College of Agriculture, PO  Box 307, Jimma, Ethiopia
jcolagri@telecom.net.et

Abstract

This trial was conducted to study the comparative egg production performance of local and White Leghorn hens under intensive and rural household condition. Replicated groups of local and Leghorn layers were subjected to ad libitum feeding and household condition with or without supplementation in a completely randomized design. Feed consumption, egg production and survival rates were used as evaluation parameters.

The mean total feed consumption of the Leghorn layers kept under intensive system was about 85% of the mean total consumption of local layers kept under similar conditions which might be attributed to the highly pronounced selective feeding and feed scratching behavior of local chicks. The mean annual egg production of local layers kept under intensive and rural household conditions with or without supplementation was 35%, 59%, and 69% of that of Leghorn layers kept under similar condition, respectively. Local hens kept under intensive management system were inferior to leghorn hens kept under similar conditions in rate of survival and health status. But local layers were found to be more appropriate than leghorn layers under rural household conditions in vigor and rate of mortality.

The result of this study clearly showed that Leghorn layers performed better under all the management regimes tested, ranging from scavenging to intensive system of production, compared to the local layers in terms of egg production. There seems to be no economic justification for ad libitum and supplementary feeding of scavenging local layers due to their poor feed utilization efficiency and low rate of survival in captivity.

Keywords: Egg production, household, intensive, local hens, scavenging, supplementation,White Leghorn

Introduction

Poultry production is one area of livestock production with significant contribution to human food production. In most parts of Ethiopia, consumers have high preferences for poultry products. Besides preference, poultry products provide proteins of high biological value. Poultry production serves as a simple means of generating family income and employment opportunities. Compared to other domestic animals, poultry can be raised with relatively low capital investment and readily available household labor. Thus poultry play an important role in the diet and economy of the Ethiopian people.

It is estimated that the country has over 56 million chickens, about 98% of which are kept under rural household conditions. There is no purposeful poultry feeding in rural Ethiopia and scavenging is the most important component of the poultry diet. Full day scavenging poultry are usually capable of finding feeds for their maintenance requirement plus the production of few eggs and are vulnerable to predators and spread of infection (Tadelle and Ogle 1996). Even though there is some research done in the area of breed evaluation and supplementary feeding (Abebe 1992; Tadelle and Ogle 1996; Negussie and Ogle 2000; Brannang and Persson 1990), what has been studied so far in Ethiopia is not tangible enough to show the relative effect of genetic and non -genetic factors on the performance of the local chickens (Alemu and Tadelle,1997).

The major objective of this study was to evaluate the comparative egg production performance of local and White Leghorn hens under intensive management and rural household conditions, with or without supplementation.

Materials and methods

Experimental site

This study was conduction in Ethiopia, at Jimma college of Agriculture (JCA) located at an altitude of 1700m and 335 km southwest of the capital-city, Addis Ababa. The trial on the rural household conditions was conducted within a peasant association located at a distance of 10 km from JCA.

Production of experimental chicks

Local eggs purchased from Jimma town and exotic eggs collected from the White Leghorn flock of the JCA poultry farm were used for the experiment. An adequate number of eggs of each of local and Leghorn hens were selected against undesirable size, shape and shell structure . The selected eggs were fumigated with formaldehyde gas (17g KMnO4 +100ml of 20% formalin) and incubated to hatch the experimental chicks. All the chicks hatched were placed on standard starter ration and raised to an age of 20 weeks, and used for this study.

Management of experimental hens

In experiment 1, 5 groups of local and 5 groups of Leghorn pullets 50 pullets in each group) were wing-banded, weighed and randomly housed in one of the ten experimental houses, with raised floors and sawdust litter. Each group was provided with a laying box and feeding and watering troughs and fed with commercial grower ration. At an age of seven months, all the groups were subjected to ad libitum feeding with commercial layer ration purchased in Addis Ababa. There was a completely randomized design with 5 replications for a study period of 20 weeks.

In experiment 2 (conducted at the same time as that of experiment 1), 24 groups of local and 24 groups of Leghorn, with 20 pullets each,  were distributed to 24 selected farmers who constructed their own poultry houses and poultry house equipment according to the constructional design provided. All the groups were fed with commercial grower ration provided to the participating families along with data collection forms. At an age of seven months all the groups were subjected to household conditions, with or without a supplementary daily ration of 60 g/head (50% of the requirement under intensive feeding) in a completely randomized design with 12 replications . Clean water was made available all the time, in all the cases. In the cases of supplementation and ad libitum feeding, feed was offered at 10% above intake (adjusted daily), and orts were collected and weighed once a day.

Data collection

Mortality was recorded and egg production determined daily; yolk, albumen and whole eggs were weighed weekly using representative egg samples. Yolk color intensity was measured by scoring, using the Roche color fan scale and potassium dichromate grading system (Bornstein and Bartov 1966).

Statistical analyses

An analysis of variance was carried out using Fisher's method (Snedecor and Cochran 1972) with the Duncan multiple range test for comparing the treatment means where F values were significant (Duncan 1955).

Results and discussion

Experimental 1

Feed consumption

There is a general agreement on the fact that modern productive breeds of hen are characterized by high feed intake and feed conversion efficiency, when placed on grain-based commercial rations (Preston and Leng 1987). However, the result of this study (Table 1) showed that the total feed consumption was significantly higher (p<0.05) for local than for Leghorn layers kept under intensive management conditions. The mean total feed consumption of the Leghorn layers kept under intensive management was about 85%of the mean total feed consumption of local layers kept under similar conditions.

The higher level of feed consumption attained by local hens could not be attributed to body size and high degree of specialization which permit optimum feed consumption and utilization for productive purpose. Feed consumption of the local hens seems to be overestimated due to their pronounced selective feeding and feed scratching behavior.

Egg production

There was no significant differences  between the local and Leghorn pullets assigned to intensive management regime in rate of sexual maturity as measured by age at first age (Tables 1 and 2). Leghorn layers kept under intensive management system produced three times more eggs than local layers kept under an intensive management system. The mean egg weight of local layers kept under intensive management was 72% of the mean egg weight of Leghorn layers kept under similar conditions, suggesting that the mean annual egg mass of the Leghorn hens was 7.2 kg /hen, the value of which was significantly higher than that of local hens (1.8 kg/hen). There was no significant difference between Leghorn and local eggs in yolk and albumen weight, expressed as percent of their respective egg weight. There is strong consumers preference for local eggs over the exotic ones in Ethiopia, mainly due to the deep orange color of their yolk. However, there was no significant difference between eggs of local and Leghorn hens kept under intensive management in yolk color as measured by the Roche color fan reading and potassium dichromate grading system. This suggests that yolk color is a function of feed not breed. At the  time of conducting this experiment, the market price of eggs was about 0.33 Birr/egg (Birr = US$0.118) in Jimma. The commercial layer ration was 129 Birr/quintal in Addis Ababa and the transportation cost Birr 0.026/quintal/ km.  In the intensive system, about Birr 18 and 5.4 was required (feed cost) to produce a dozen of eggs worth Birr 4.00 in Jimma by local and Leghorn hens respectively.

The result of this study clearly showed that Leghorn hens are more efficient with a cheaper cost of production than local hens under an intensive management system. There seems to be no economic justification for keeping native hens under intensive management system for the purpose of egg production, due to their poor feed utilization efficiency. Similar results have been reported by Bigbee (1965), Kidane (1980) and Burley (1957). This result also agrees with that of Alemu and Tadelle (1997), who reported that the virtue of local chickens is that they are appropriate for the traditional low input / output production system because they make the best use of locally available resources, hatch their eggs and brood chicks, but are not suitable for intensive management.

Survival rate

Diseases are one of the major factors that impair poultry production in Ethiopia. The Ethiopian indigenous chickens are said to be well adapted to the local environment and considered to be resistant to diseases (AACMC 1984). However, the result of this study clearly showed that local hens kept under intensive management system are inferior to Leghorn hens kept under similar conditions, in terms of rate of survival and health status (Table 1). Leghorn layers placed under intensive management looked bright, active and interested in their environment whereas, lack of interest in their environment, wing droppings, huddling at the corner, sign of staggering movement and habit of cannibalism were frequently seen among the local layers kept under intensive management.

Table 2  Mean values for survival rates and egg characteristics of local and Leghorn layers kept  under intensive (JCA)  and rural household conditions (Household), with or without supplementation
	Household		Household + S501		JCA Intensive
	Local	WLH	Local	WLH	Local	WLH
Mortality (%)	5.0a	7.3b	4.9a	5.2a	24.0c	5.6d
Mortality due to predation (%)	20	31	16	32	-	-
Egg weight (g)	38a	52b	37a	53b	38a	53b
Yolk weight (% of whole egg)	29.5	29.4	29	29.2	29.4	29.8
Albumen weight (% of whole egg)	54.6	55.1	55.0	55.3	55.0	55.9
Total egg mass (kg/head)	1.48a	2.91b	1.67a	4.35c	1.79a
Roche color fan score	8b	7.9b	7.8b	7.9b	5.2a	5.4a
Potassium dichromate score	6.7b	7.1b	7.2b	7.0b	4.3a	4.3a

Local hens kept under intensive management exhibited recurrent outbreaks of disease accompanied by high rate of mortality (Table 2 ), suggesting that they are inferior to Leghorn hens kept under similar conditions, in rate of survival. This result agrees with those reported by other authors (Teketel 1986; Abebe 1992; Brannange and Persson 1990; Abebe 1992). The reason for high mortality of local hens under intensive management could be due to the fact that they are not used to confinement. Probably diseases, which are important under confinement in Ethiopia such as coccidiosis, chronic respiratory disease, Mark's disease, Salmonella pullorum and nutritional deficiencies could cause more problems in local than in exotic stocks (Alamargot 1987; Tadelle and Ogle 1996).

Experiment 2

Egg production

There was no significant deference between Leghorn and local pullets assigned to household condition with or without supplementation in rate of maturity as measured by age at first egg (Table 1). Under household conditions local hens produced 69% of the egg production of Leghorn layers. The egg production of Leghorn and local layers increased by 46% and 15% as a result of supplementation with a daily ration of 60 g/head, respectively. These results clearly showed that Leghorn layers kept under rural household conditions were superior in egg production to local layers kept under similar conditions and found to be more responsive to supplemental feeding than local hens (Table 1). This result is in agreement with those of Bigbee (1965), Kidane (1980) and Brannang and Persson (1990), who indicated that average annual egg production of native hens is about 30 to 60 eggs under village environments. This result also agrees with that of Burley (1957), Teketel (1986) and Alemu and Tadelle (1997) who reported that there is an increase in the egg production performance of local hens with improvement in nutritional status, but not to an economically acceptable level. The mean total egg mass of local and Leghorn layers kept under household conditions was 1.5 kg and 2.9kg /hen, respectively. There was no improvement in the mean egg weight of both local and Leghorn layers kept under rural household conditions as a result of supplementation.  This indicates that egg weight is a function of breed rather than of feed. There was no significant difference between eggs of local and Leghorn layers kept under rural household conditions, with or without supplementation,  in yolk color as measured by the Roche color fan reading and potassium dichromate grading system (Table 2).

Under rural household conditions (with or without supplementation), the yolk color of the Leghorn layers was found to be as yellow as that of local hens , indicating again that yolk color is a function of feed. About 13 Birr (feed cost) was required to produce eggs worth Birr 15 and 29 by scavenging local and Leghorn layers supplemented daily with a ration of 60g/hen, respectively. Thus there seems to be no economic justification for supplementary feeding of scavenging local layers due to their poor feed utilization efficiencies.

Survival rate

Mortality was significantly higher for Leghorn layers kept under rural household conditions with or without supplementation compared to local layers kept under similar condition. Higher losses occurred during the early phase of the study in Leghorn layers kept under rural household conditions indicating that exotic hens introduced into rural household conditions of Ethiopia are subjected to considerable hazards of diseases, parasites and predators. There was significant reduction in the mortality of the Leghorn hens with advancing age, suggesting that exotic hens introduced into rural household conditions, with or without supplementation, might probably develop some immunity to disease gradually.

Leghorn hens kept under rural household conditions were less alert, aggressive and responsive to sound signal communication, traits which are important under the Ethiopian rural household conditions, characterized by prevalence of predators, compared to the local hens. Losses caused by predation were significantly higher for Leghorn than for local hens kept under rural household conditions, with or without supplementation. All the mortality attributed to predation occurred during day time. In areas where contacts between the experimental and village flocks are numerous, disease conditions were found to be particularly severe in both local and Leghorn hens. Coccidiosis was the prominent disease that afflicted both local and Leghorn hens assigned to rural household conditions, particularly during rainy seasons.
 

Conclusions

• The result of this study clearly showed that Leghorn hens performed better than local hens, under all the management regimes tested, ranging from scavenging to intensive production systems, in terms of egg production.
• There seems to be no economic justification for either supplementary feeding or intensive management of local hens for the purpose of egg production due to their poor feed utilization efficiency and low survival rate in captivity.

References

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