On-station and On-farm Evaluation of Three Exotic Breeds of Chicken in Homa District of West Wollega, Ethiopia

Abstract

Background: Poultry production has an important economic, social and cultural benefit and plays a significant role in family nutrition in countries. Ninty six percent of the total national poultry products (eggs and meat) are contributed by the indigenous chickens kept under village management system, indicating that the poultry industry is still in its infancy (CSA 2017). Methods: This study was conducted to evaluation of three breeds of exotic chickens during 2017 to 2019 in Homa District of West Wollega Zone of Oromia Regional State located 501 km west of Addis Ababa. A total of 270 (90 of each of SasooT44, Koekoek and Dominant Red Barred) chicks were obtained from Jimma University hatchery and transported to the study area. At the end of the brooding period, 18 growers (4 females and 2 males of each breed) were delivered to 12 purposively selected farmers and evaluated for production performance. Result: The results of the on-farm study showed that the mean live body weight attained (2.48 kg/head) by SasooT44, under scavenging conditions was significantly higher (P<0.05) than the others, followed by that of Koekoek breed of chickens. Generally, the results of this study indicated that the production performances of SasooT44 and Koekoek breed of chickens was significantly higher than that of Dominant Red Barred, indicating that both of these two breeds of chickens seem to be promising under the current local scavenging conditions of Ethiopia with similar climatic conditions to that of Homa district.