Comparison of growth rate and meat yield characteristics of cockerels between Fayoumi and Sonali under village conditions in Bangladesh

I M Azharul, H Ranvig* and M A R Howlider**

Department of Livestock Services, MOFL, Bangladesh and Network for Smallholder Poultry Development ,
KVL, Denmark; (Postal address: 689/A Khilgaon, Shipaibag, Dhaka 1219, Bangladesh)
azharul72@yahoo.com
^*Department of Animal Science and Animal Health, The Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University(KVL),
Büllowsvej 17, 1870 Fredericksburg C., Denmark.
Han.Ranvig@ihh.kvl.dk
^**Department of Poultry Science, Bangladesh Agricultural University,
Mymensingh, Bangladesh.
marhowlider@yahoo.co.uk

Abstract

204 cockerels of Fayoumi and crossbred Sonali ( 8-week old) were divided equally per breed into 6 replications containing 17 birds each. The study was conducted in the rural area of Bangladesh in an intensive systems during the period from January 18 to February 28 when the temperature ranged from 9.9 to 23.7 degree C and humidity 67.4 to 80.4%. All birds were fed ad libitum a commercial layer grower mash. The feed and water was supplied twice a day. Rise husk (8 cm thick) was used as a litter on the floor. Floor space per bird was 984 cm² .

The final body weight of Sonali and Fayoumi was 1001 g and 959 g respectively with a tendency to be higher for Sonali (P=0.08). Sonali had higher (P>0.05) higher percentage of breast (22.8%), leg (34.1%), dark meat (37.3%) and total meat (60.1%) in comparison with Fayoumi 21.9, 32.8, 36.1 and 58% respectively for the corresponding values. It can be noted that meat was intact with bone. Mortality was also apparently lower in Sonali (7.8%) compared to Fayoumi (9.8%).

It can be concluded that crossbred Sonali is performing slightly better compared to purebred Fayoumi under an intensive system in the village conditions of Bangladesh.

Keywords: Cockerels, Fayoumi, growth, meat yield, Sonali

Introduction

In 1998-99, total meat production in Bangladesh was 656,000 tonnes, of which chicken and duck meat contributed 154,000 tonnes, which ranked second after beef. Per capita meat consumption is only 5.12 kg per year (Statistical yearbook of Bangladesh 2000), and per capita protein intake 63g per day (Statistical Bulletin Bangladesh 2003), which is markedly below recommended requirements. As protein intake is recommended to be in the range of 0.8 to 1.6 g/d per kg body weight for humans (Anonymous 1998), this requires 56 to 112g protein per day for a person of 70 kg body weight. Thus there is a need to increase the animal protein production to fulfill the demand of the people and subsequently to make them sound and healthy for increasing their working ability.

Meat production could be increased through chicken rearing, and chicken meat is the most popular meat throughout the country. In urban or rural areas, any great festival of either religious or social origin is unimaginable without roasted chicken. People think that it is a great dishonor not to serve roast chicken at a festival. They always try to find the indigenous (Desi) cockerels for its good taste and compactness after cooking. The demand for cockerels is bigger than the supply. However, local chickens could not service the people in an over-populated country, where 130 million people are living in an area of 147,570 square kilometers (Statistical Bulletin Bangladesh 2003).

Fayoumi (Fy) and crossbred Sonali (RIR*Fy) have been taking their place besides the indigenous hens due to their adaptability and acceptability in the climatic conditions of Bangladesh (Anisuzzaman and Wahid 1988). Crossbred progenies were superior to purebred in terms of growth rate, meat quality, body weight and feed conversion (Masic and Khalifah 1965). So it is worthwhile to observe the growth rate and meat yields of Sonali and Fayoumi cockerels to determine if these breeds could be recommended beside the native cockerels to partially fulfill the demand of the country. Keeping this view in mind the research has been designed with the objectives to compare the growth rate, meat yield characteristics and mortality between Sonali and Fayoumi cockerels.

Materials and methods

Birds, feeds and management

A total of 204 cockerels of 8 weeks of age of Fayoumi and crossbred Sonali cockerels (equal numbers of each) were divided into 6 replications each of 17 birds of each breed. The study was conducted in the rural area of Bangladesh in an intensive system during the period from January 18 to February 28, 2003.

Picture 1. External view of the experimental house

All birds were fed ad libitum commercial layer grower mash, a diet containing nutrients (manufacturer supplied information): Metabolizable energy 11.9-12.1 (MJ/kg), moisture 11% (max), crude protein 16% (min), crude fiber 5.0% (max), crude fat 4.5% (min), crude ash 6.0% (max), lysine 0.9% (min), methionine 0.3% (min), calcium 1.2% (min) and available phosphorous 0.45% (min). The feed and water was supplied twice a day. A vitamin mineral premix was supplemented with water twice a week. Supplied feed and residuals were recorded daily. The body weight of each bird was recorded weekly. Rice husk (8 cm thick) was used as a litter on a floor, made of bamboo, elevated 45 cm from the ground. Floor space per bird was 984 cm² .

Picture 2. Birds housed in different pens

Slaughtering and evisceration

At the end of the 14 weeks, thirty birds representing equal numbers of both breeds from each replication were randomly slaughtered for meat yield characteristics. Prior to slaughter, they were given only water for 12 hours to facilitate evisceration and also to know their actual live weight. Different parameters of meat yield were recorded. Blood weight was calculated as the difference between live weight prior to slaughter and the completely bled bird. Feather and skin weight were calculated as the difference between weight after bleeding and weight after de-feathering and skinning. Bone was not separated from the breast, legs and wings meat.

Statistical analysis

The data were statistically analyzed using analysis of variance and the General Linear Model (GLM) procedure of SAS^® software Version 8.2. Birds and replications were included in the model as fixed effects. Assumptions for the analysis were evaluated using residual plots and Shapiro-Wilks test for normality. All statements of significance were based on P<0.05.

Results and Discussion

Body weight and body weight gain

There was a tendency (P=0.079) for final live weight to be higher for the Sonali breed ((Table 1), the weights for both breeds being higher compared to results reported by Mostageer et al (1975), who demonstrated that body weight of males at 12 wk of age averaged 549 g for Fayoumi, and by Rizk and El-Ibiary (1960) in Egypt, who reported that the mean weight of Fayoumi chicks reared to 16 weeks of age was 734 g. It appeared (Figure 1) that the differences in live weight between the two breeds became more marked with increasing age, in favourof the Sonali.

Table 1. Comparison of body weight (g/bird) and total weight gain (g/bird) between Sonali and Fayoumi
Weeks for	Sonali	Fayoumi	P-value
body weight	Mean ±SEM	Mean ± SEM	Breed
8	458±6.1	451±6.4	0.42
9	525±8.1	507±7.8	0.10
10	592±9.2	561±11.0	0.030*
11	668±11.1	646±11.4	0.18
12	776±13.3	745±14.7	0.12
13	874±13.7	837±16.2	0.085
14	1001±14.9	959±18.0	0.079
Weight gain
week 9-11	209±13	196±18	0.11
week 12-14	434±12	409±23	0.34
week 9-14	542±13	508±23	0.18
SEM- Standard Error Mean, *P0.05

Figure 1: Growth curves of Sonali and Fayoumi cockerels from 8 to 14 weeks of age

Feed consumption and conversion

Feed intake tended to be higher, and feed conversion to be better, for Sonali (Tables 2 and 3) but the differences were only significant for feed intake in weeks 9 and 10.

Table 2. Feed consumption (g/d/bird) of cockerels during the experimental period
Week	Sonali	Fayoumi
Week	Mean ±SEM	Mean ± SEM	P-value
9	37.2±0.51	35.9±0.31	0.036*
10	46.3±0.51	44.7±0.48	0.041*
11	52.8±0.28	53.4±0.38	0.47
12	60.5±0.33	60.3±0.45	0.79
13	66.1±0.53	65.1±0.56	0.59
14	75.0±0.38	72.8±0.57	0.12
SEM- Standard Error Mean, *P<0.05

Table 3. Feed conversion (feed intake/weight gain, g/g) and mortality of cockerels during the period of 8-14 weeks.
Variables	Sonali	Fayoumi
Variables	Mean ±SEM	Mean ± SEM	P-value
Feed conversion
week 9-11	4.65±0.28	4.96±0.34	0.29
week 12-14	3.26±0.12	3.45±0.20	0.24
week 9-14	4.37±0.12	4.61±0.19	0.11
Mortality, %	7.84±3.62	9.80±2.91	0.64
SEM- Standard Error Mean

Meat yield characteristics

There were higher percentages of breast meat, leg meat and dark meat in Sonali compared with Fayoumi (Table 4), but not in the other carcass traits, except for gizzard weight which was higher in Fayoumi. The values for dressing percentage in Fayoumi (63.2%) were higher than the 54% reported by Haque et al (1999), but in the latter case the birds were lighter and younger.

Table 4. Comparison of meat yield characteristics between Sonali and Fayoumi
Variables	Sonali		Fayoumi		P-value
Variables	Mean	SEM	Mean	SEM	Breed
Live weight, g	939	16.5	922	17.4	0.29
Carcass wt, g	699	11.6	682	12.1	0.23
¹Carcass wt, %	74.5	0.56	74.0	0.38	0.52
¹Feather and skin, %	25.7	0.50	26.0	0.38	0.66
¹Dressing yield, %‡	62.5	0.53	62.3	0.38	0.76
¹Dressed wt, %†	48.7	0.72	47.0	0.42	0.08
²Gizzard wt, %	3.11^b	0.13	3.64^a	0.11	0.008**
³Breast wt, %	22.8^a	0.28	21.9^b	0.24	0.037*
³Leg wt, %	34.1^a	0.30	32.8^b	0.33	0.027*
³Dark meat, %	37.3^a	0.37	36.1^b	0.34	0.029*
³Light meat: Dark meat	0.61	0.01	0.61	0.01	0.93
³Total meat, %	60.1^a	0.48	58.0^b	0.43	0.002**
SEM- Standard Error Mean, P<0.05, *P<0.01; Dark meat consists of leg meat (thigh and drumstick) and wing meat; Light meat is breast meat; ‡ Subtracting Blood , feather, viscera and shank †Subtracting weight of blood, feather and skin, shank, head, neck heart, liver, gizzard ¹Percentage on live weight; ²⁺³Percentage on carcass weight; ³With bone

Conclusions

Sonali cockerels fed intensively from 8 to 14 weeks of age tended to grow slightly faster and their carcasses had more edible meat than Fayoumi cockerels.

Acknowledgement

This field research in Bangladesh was performed for the partial fulfillment of MSc degree from The Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University, Denmark. The first author would cordially like to thank DANIDA and Danish Embassy for providing the required grants. Appreciation is extended to Network for Smallholder Poultry Development, KVL for organizing and implementing the MSc. Course. Finally thanks are extended to the PLDP project and women who hosted the experiments.

References

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