On-farm comparative production and reproduction performance evaluation of Sasso, Sasso-RIR, Koekoek and Improved Local chicken breeds in Bako Tibe and Dano districts of western Oromia, Ethiopia

Gutu Fekede, Yosef Tadesse¹, Wondemeneh Esatu² and Tadelle Dessie²

Oromia Agricultural Research Institute Bako Agricultural Research Center, Ethiopia
gutufekede@gmail.com
¹ School of Animal and Range Sciences Haramaya University, Ethiopia
² International Livestock Research Institute Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Abstract

The study was conducted to evaluate the production and re-production performances of four different chicken breeds under farmer’s management conditions in Bako Tibe and Dano districts of western Oromia, Ethiopia from January 2017 to January 2018. Four different breeds of chickens, three tropical adapted exotic chickens (Sasso, Sasso-RIR, Koekoek), and one improved local (Horro) were tested in two districts (BakoTibe and Dano). Six kebeles were selected from the two districts (three kebeles per district) with a total of 192 households (32 households per kebele) and eight (8) households per breed owner were purposively selected to evaluate the performances of different breeds of chickens. A total of 25 chickens of each breed were distributed per household to evaluate the production and re-production performance. Body weight, average daily gain, age at first egg, the total number of egg, hen-day egg production, and average egg weight were the parameters measured. Data were analyzed by the GLM procedure of SAS. The result revealed that no significant differences were observed between the two districts (P>0.05) but highly significant different(P<0.001) were observed between breeds on productive performances (body weight, average daily gains, the total number of egg produced/hen up to 44 weeks, hen-day egg production and egg weight) and reproductive performance (age at first lay). Sasso breed exhibited the highest performance in all parameters under study. Therefore, the Sasso breed should be recommended and promoted under the semi-scavenging poultry production conditions for farmers in the study area and a similar environment.

Keywords: exotic chickens, improved horro, on-farm, performance evaluation

Introduction

In Ethiopia, chicken production is an important and integral part of most households in rural, urban and peri-urban areas like other developing countries, enabling farmers to harvest the benefits of high-quality protein in the sort of eggs and meat from only scavenging feed resource (Habte et al 2017)_. Even though the chicken population is large in number (59.495 million), the annual output of meat is only 13,111 metric tonnes and 54,395 metric tonnes of egg in Ethiopia (FAOSTAT 2016). The average per capita chicken product consumption is less than 1kg, which is one of the lowest in the world, indicating a huge gap between demand and supply of poultry products (meat and eggs) in the country (Boere et al 2015; Francom 2017).

For the past decades, low production performances of indigenous chickens have been enforced to introduce exotic breeds to improve their performance through crossbreeding with exotic chicken strains, which could not be successful. It may be due to, dissemination of inappropriate technologies without an understanding of production environments under which indigenous chickens are kept and lack of information on breeding objectives and farmers’ trait preferences (Dana et al 2010). Even though Exotic temperate breeds have fast growth rates and better egg production potential when we compare with existing indigenous chickens; they demanded high feed quality and quantity, veterinary, energy cost, and poorly adapted to the low-input chicken management systems which dominate the rural area of the country (Teklemariam 2017).

Therefore, a critical step is required to enable farmers to increase the availability of chicken products and to develop smallholder access to high-producing breeds. In this regard, different studies reported that certain tropically adapted imported or improved local breeds can produce between 94 to 200 eggs/ hen/ year and reach more than 2.0 kg live-weight at 10-20 weeks of age under low-input production using locally available feed resources(Tadesse 2012; Sharma et al 2015; Getiso et al 2016; Dessie and Esatu 2017). Therefore, the study was designed to test the production and reproduction performances of Sasso, Sasso-RIR, Koekoek and improved Horro chicken breeds under farmers’ management conditions in the Bako Tibe and Dano districts of Oromia region, Ethiopia.

Materials and methods

Description of the study areas

The study was conducted at BakoTibe and Dano districts of West Shoa Zone of Oromia Region state, Ethiopia. The districts were purposively selected, based on a large number of chickens, the high number of smallholders rearing chicken, the percentage contribution of chicken to household income/nutrition, percentage market share captured by smallholders, availability of feed resources for a growing chicken industry, and interest of the farmers testing breeds.

BakoTibe district

BakoTibe is lying between 8⁰57’20’’ to 9⁰17’40” N longitudes and 36⁰53’20” to 37⁰23’50” E latitudes at about 251km in a western direction from Addis Ababa on the main road to Nekemte. The district is delaminated by the East Wollega zone from the southwest direction, Horro Guduru zone from the North and East direction by Chaliya district. It is characterized by flat topography with some hilly mountains and an altitude range from 1569 - 2633 meters above sea level (masl). The area coverage of the district is about 638.21km². The soils in the district had classified as; red soil, black soil, and brown soil based on the local classification (Gezu and Tekalign 2019). The major agro-ecological zone of the district are semi-arid, sub-humid and humid with bi-modal rainfall characteristics, receives an average annual rainfall of 1242 mm and average annual temperature ranges from 13.3°C- 27.9°C (BARMDS 2015). The rainy season covers March to November, and the maximum rain has been received, in June, July, and August with a short rain season extending from December to February unless unconditional rain occurs (Gebrekidan and Negassa 2006). The livestock populations of the district are 137343 cattle, 12502 sheep, 24212 goats, 3685 horses, 8415 donkeys, 1023 mule, and 96742 poultry (BTDLFO 2017).

Dano district

Dano is lying between 8⁰37’0’’ to 8⁰57’20” N longitudes and 37⁰3’30” to 37⁰34’0” E latitudes at a distance of 119 km from Ambo town (zonal capital) and 217 km away from the capital city Addis Ababa. The district is delaminated by the Jimma zone from the Southwest direction, Chaliya district from the north and Southeast direction by Nono district. About 5% of the district are lowland followed by 80 % of midaltitude and 15% of the high land with an altitude of <1500, 1500-2200, and >2200 m.a.s.l., respectively. It receives an average annual rainfall of 900-1400 mm and temperature ranges from 15-30°C. The land in the district is categorized as 90% plain, 8.3% mountain, 1.5% gorge, and stones and rocks cover 0.2%. The major soil types with in the district are chromic and orthicluvisols (6.7%), nitosols (10.2%), and chromic and pellic vertisols (83%). The livestock populations are 226,791 cattle, 5334 sheep, 9283 goats, 72 horses, 3300 donkeys, 601 mules, and 24954 poultry (DDLFO 2017).

Sampling methods to select farmers for testing of chickens

Six kebeles from both districts (three kebeles per district) were randomly selected. A total of 192 households from both districts, 32 households per kebele were purposively selected with consultation of extension officers and community leaders based on interest and willingness of farmers to collect data, allow identification/tagging of birds, vaccination and treatment of introduced and existing birds, the willingness to accept 25 birds of selected breeds, keeping introduced chicken at least for 2 years, at a time keep no more than 50 adult chickens of existing birds, commitment to providing a night shelter at a minimum requirement and supplement feeding was considered.

Chicken managements

Before the distribution of the introduced chickens, training was given to the participant farmers about chicken husbandry and management. Following vaccination schedules, introduced chickens had vaccinated up to six weeks of age against the most common chicken disease at Debrezeit Agricultural Research Center before distributed to households. The introduced and previously existed adult chickens were tagged for identification. The farmers constructed shade separately for introduced breeds in which they kept exclusively and provided a daily supplementation of 35gm (about 30% of their daily requirements) prepared from the locally available feed materials and the drinking water was provided to the chickens ad libitum.

Experimental breeds

Chicken breeds used in the study were Sasso, Sasso-RIR, Koekoek, and improved Horro. They were evaluated in six (6) program kebeles from two districts. In each district, three kebeles received all of these breeds. Eight (8) households in a kebele received randomly selected of each breed. Likewise, each household was received 25 chicks (6 weeks of age) of one breed of mixed-sex (both male and female). The households were visited by enumerators every 2 - 4 weeks for 44 weeks to collect data on chicken management and performances.

Data collection

Data on chicken productive performances: body weight, average daily gain, the total number of egg, hen-day egg production, average egg weight, and reproductive performance: age at the first egg for each breed was collected.

Body weight

Chicken body weight was measured by using a digital sensitive balance on a gram basis. Group body weights of tagged birds, were recorded every 4 weeks from 12 weeks up to 20 weeks for introduced breeds. The average body weight gains of birds were determined as the difference between the final average body weight (the weight obtained at the age of 20 weeks for both sexes) and the average initial body weights (the bodyweight obtained at the age of 12 weeks). The average daily gain/bird/day was determined by dividing the body weight gain with a total number of days to attain final body weight.

Age at first egg

The number of days to the production of the first egg was calculated from the hatching date of the hen to the production of the first egg laid by at least 5% of birds of the flocks.

Egg production

The farmers collected the egg by themselves after the birds had laid their first egg from the start of lay until the end of the experimental period (44weeks). The enumerators visited each household every two weeks and recorded the egg laid within two weeks. Hen-day egg production had estimated as the total number of eggs produced by the birds, divided by the number of birds alive at the time of egg collection and calculated by the following formula.

Egg Weight

The collected eggs from each group of breeds under study were separately weighted. Mean egg weight was obtained by weighing samples of an egg from each of the group by using an electronic digital sensitive balance in a gram base for each breed, every two weeks until the end of the experiment period.

Experimental Design

The experiment was arranged in 2×4 factorial experiments in Completely Randomized Design (CRD) involving two districts (Bako Tibe and Dano) and four breeds (Sasso, Sasso-RIR, Koekoek and Improved Horro).

Statistical analysis

The data were analyzed using the general linear model procedure of Statistical Analysis Systems (SAS 2011) and significant pairs of treatment means were compared using DMRT (Duncan’s Multiple Range Test) at a 5% level of significance. The model used for data analysis was Y_ijk = μ + A_i + B_j + (AB)_ij + Є_ijk ; Where Y_ijk: the dependent variables for the i^th and j^th observation; µ: the overall mean; A _i: the i^th effect of two districts; B_j: the j^th effect of four breeds; (AB)_ij: interaction effect of i^th district and j^th breed; and Є _ijk : random error terms.

Results

There was no interaction between the districts and breeds on any parameters observed in this study. Therefore, only main effects of districts and breeds were considered to have affected the different parameters reported.

Male and female body weights

Male and female body weights of different breeds of chickens were presented in Table 1. The current result shows that breeds had highly significant effects (P<0.001) on male and female body weights, but no significant difference (p>0.05) were observed between the two districts. Male and female of the Sasso breeds were revealed the highest body weights at 12, 16, and 20 weeks. In the current study, male and female Sasso breed exhibited an average body weight of 2117.7gm, 1728.7gm at 20 weeks of age. Nevertheless, improved Horro exhibited the lowest average body weight for males and females of the same age.

Male and female average daily weight gains

As data presented in Table 2, the districts had no significant difference (P>0.05) on male and female average daily average weight gains. However, a highly significant effect (P<0.001) was observed between the breeds on the male and female average daily gains between 12-16 and 16-20 weeks of age. The result indicated that the highest mean average daily gain was recorded for male and female Sasso breed and the lowest mean average daily gain was recorded for male and female improved Horro breed.

Age at first lay and egg production

The data presented in Table 3 shows that the districts had no significant (P>0.05) effects on age at first lay and total egg production, but highly significant differences (P<0.001) were observed between breeds on age at first lay and total egg production. The Sasso breed shows that the lowest average age at first egg lay and the highest total number of egg production whereas; the improved Horro shows the highest average age at first egg lay and the lowest total number of egg production/hen up to 44 weeks. The highest egg numbers were recorded for the Sasso followed by the Koekoek breeds in both districts. Conversely, the lowest egg numbers had recorded, for the improved Horro in both districts.

Hen-day egg production

The data summarized in table 4 shows that districts had no significant difference (p>0.05) on HDEP. However, breeds had highly significant effects (p<0.001) on HDEP. The current result indicated that the average HDEP of Sasso at 28- 44weeks was higher than other contemporary breeds. The Sasso-RIR, Koekoek and improved Horro breeds had shown statistically similar results at 36and 44 weeks of age. The highest HDEP observed at 44 weeks for all breeds.

Egg weight

The result indicated in Table 5 shows that no significant difference (p>0.05) between the two districts. In contrast highly significant effects ((P<0.001) were indicated between the breeds at all weeks of age. The highest average egg weight (gm) were recorded for Sasso, at 28,32,36,40, 44 weeks were 48.0,51.0,52.7,60.6,55.7 gm, respectively and the lowest average egg weight were recorded for improved Horro at 28,32,36,40,44 weeks were 41.4,46.1,48.3,48.3 and 49.2 gm, respectively in the study area.

Discussion

Male and female body weights

Body weight influences the production and reproduction traits of birds and it indicates the growth potential of the chickens. It increases as age increases, which indicates age and body weight have positive correlations. The significant difference between the breeds in the present results on the body weight of males and females at 20 weeks of age indicated the trait is affected by the genetic potential of the breeds and environment, which was agreed with the report of several authors (Mutayoba 2012; Adedeji 2006; Mohammed 2005). Similarly, the breed differences had a great impact on the physical and biochemical contents of chicken products (Ali and Anjum 2013).

The current result (the Sasso female breed at 20 weeks) was in line with the result of (Tadesse 2012)_, who reported the adult female body weights of Isa Brown, Bovans Brown, and Potchefstroom Koekoek chickens with 1.54, 1.55, and 1.64kg respectively; but higher than female body weight of Sasso-RIR, Koekoek, and Improved Horro breeds at 20 weeks in East Shoa. The average body weights of Koekoek male and female breed at 20 weeks of age were 1.01kg and 1.4 kg, respectively in Southern Tigray (Atsbaha et al 2018) which was lower than the present results. Similarly, in SNNPR the average male and female body weight of Sasso at 20 weeks of age were 2.94±0.7 kg and 2.73±0.53 kg respectively, under the village production system (Aman et al 2017) which were higher than the current result of male and female Sasso breed. This indicates better husbandry practices could improve the performance of the breeds.

In contrast to other breeds, the current result of the body weights of the female Sasso breed in the village production system was similar to the Bovans brown commercial egg layers, which exhibited 902±10.6gm and 1230.1± 6.1gm of body weight at 12 and 16 weeks of age in Debrezeit agricultural research center (Esatu 2015). Thus the current performance of the Sasso breed was better than previously imported exotic breeds on body weight at 20 weeks of age in the village production system. Besides this, in the current study, the body weight of improved Horro at 20 weeks age was comparable with the body weight of Rode Island Red and Bovans White breeds at 22 weeks of age (Kumar et al 2014) and higher than the average body weight of six indigenous chicken ecotypes (1366.2gm) and RIR (1394.0gm) at 22 weeks of age in North-western Ethiopia (Hassen et al 2006)_. This shows that the upgrading of Horro chickens by selection was successful.

Male and female average daily weight gains

The differences in daily weight gain among different breeds and strains reported (Enaiat et al 2010; Ewonetu 2017). The current result of the Sasso female breed in Bako Tibe at 12 -16 weeks of age was agreed with the average daily gain of RIR (13.7gm) and crossbred of RIR x NN (13.5gm) during the growing phase in Nigeria (Amao 2017). However, the current result was higher than the average daily gain of Koekoek male (9.3gm) and female (7.1gm) in the Jimma zone at 20 weeks of age (Biratu et al 2018). Correspondingly, the current result was higher than the average daily gains of six indigenous chicken ecotypes (8.6gm) and RIR (8.8 gm) during the grower phase (Stanley et al 2012). The variations of average daily gain in different chicken breeds are due to the feed conversion efficiency of different breeds (Olawumi 2011). Despite extensive breeding and selection efforts, there are still large differences within the growth performance of animals fed identical diets and reared under equivalent conditions. Thus different factors such as breeds, environment, and sex are affecting the average daily weight gains of chickens.

Age at first egg lay

Age at first egg lay or age at sexual maturity is an important trait in egg-producing breeds from the economic viewpoint. Early age at first egg lay implies that egg production was supposed to be increased in their lifetime production. The live body weight of chickens at the time of commencement of egg-laying determines its age at first egg, age at peak production, and the overall performance of the hen( Okoro et al 2017). The current result of age at the first egg of the Sasso breed was consistent with the age at first lay for Isa Brown (21.4 week), Bovans Brown (22.1 week), and Potchefstroom Koekoek (20.4 week) under the village production system in East Shoa (Tadesse 2012). In contrast, the average age at first lay for the Sasso chicken was 19.0 weeks in southern Ethiopia (Aman et al 2017), which was less than the current result of Sasso breeds.

This indicates breeds, which had the lowest age at first lay had been producing a high number of eggs/hen/year. Additionally, the way the farmers manage their chickens (feeding and housing) were important factors to get more numbers of eggs/hens. The current result of the total number of egg/hen was by far higher than the performance of indigenous chickens (30-60 egg/hen/year) reported by literature under similar management conditions. Hence, the Sasso chicken breed was the best in terms of age at first lay as compared to other contemporary breeds in the study area.

Hen-day egg production and total egg number

The age of chickens linearly influences hen-day egg production. Hen day egg production increases significantly until 44 weeks for Boschveld indigenous chicken of South Africa (Okoro et al 2017), which was similar to the present study. The current result of hen-day egg production of the Sasso breed at 36 weeks was comparable with Bovans brown at 9 months (48.6 ± 24.5) in Eastern Amhara (Solomon et al 2018). The present result of egg production performance Sasso, Sasso-RIR, Koekoek and improve Horro breeds when extrapolated to 52 weeks after the start of egg production were higher than the nationally reported performance of local chickens (40-60 egg/hen/year) and previously imported and distributed temperate exotic chickens like white leghorn (173 eggs/hen/year) and tropical breed like Fayoumi (144 eggs/hens/year) of kept under the same management conditions. The lower egg production of improved Horro other than the rest of the three breeds indicates that the current selection and genetic improvement of Horro breed will be continued till the genetic potential of the breed will be fixed.

Egg weight

Large body size resulted in large egg length, width, and mass were all factors affecting egg weight (Renden et al 1984). In support of the present result, earlier studies indicated that larger hens laid larger eggs than those with smaller body weight (Everett and Olusanya 1985)_. The highest egg weights of the Sasso breed may be due to their highest body weight exhibited because egg weight had a positive correlation with the body weight of chickens. These may be due to the highest body weight breeds produce an egg with the highest weight than the lighter breeds and which implies that egg weight is significantly influenced by genotype in addition to environmental factors.

Conclusions

• The breeds had highly significant (p<0.001) effect on different production parameter namely growth, average daily gain, total egg number, HDEP, egg weight, and reproduction traits namely egg at first lay but there was no significant different (p>0.05) between districts on all parameter under study.
• It was revealed in this study that the Sasso breed recorded the highest mean values and showed superiority over Sasso-RIR, Koekoek, and improved Horro in all production and reproduction parameters considered.
• In the current study Sasso breed should be recommended and promoted to the semi-scavenging poultry production conditions for farmers in the study area and similar environment.

Acknowledgments

The authors are thankful to the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) African chicken Genetic Gain (ACGG) project for permitting us to use the data. The corresponding author wishes to extend his thanks to the Oromia Agricultural Research Institute (OARI) for granting him MSc study leave and the African Chicken Genetic Gain (ACGG) project for sponsoring his MSc study and the Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research (EIAR) for facilitating the budget.

Conflict of interest

The authors have declared that no conflict of interest exists.

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