POULTRY FEED RESOURCES AND CHEMICAL COMPOSITION OF CROP CONTENT OF SCAVENGING INDIGENOUS CHICKEN

Abstract

The study was conducted in Genji district of West Wollega Zone with the objectives of characterization of scavenging poultry feed resource base (SFRB) and evaluation of composition of crop content of scavenging indigenous chicken. A total of 60 sampled grower chickens (50% female and 50% male) at an age of 4-6 month, were purchased fromrural farmers and slaughtered during early dry season to study the physical characteristics and chemical composition of the crop content. About 50.7, 23.85, 12, 8.4 and 5.2% of the crop contents of experimental chickens were cereal grains, house-hold leftover/kitchen waste, animal proteins (insects/worms), plant/leaves, and none feed materials respectively. There was variation in composition with altitude and sex of birds slaughtered. The mean weight of the crop content obtained from the cockerels (25 g/day) was significantly lower (P<0.05) than that of the pullets (34 g/day, but there were no significant difference between altitude in mean weight of crop content of the experimental birds slaughtered. According to the result of laboratory analysis, the dry matter, ether extract, ash, crude protein, crude fiber, nitrogen free extract and calculated metabolizable energy content of the crop content were 89.37, 2.48, 14.82, 10.88, 9.35, 62.61% and 2552.3 kcal/kg), respectively. The percent composition of dry matter, ash, crude fiber, and calcium were significantly (P<0.05) higher in the crop content of pullets than in the crop content of cockerels, while crude fiber and crude protein level of the crop contents of the chickens of the mid altitude were significantly higher (P<0.05) than that of the crop content of chickens of the low altitude. The study showed that the nutrient contents of Scavengable feed resources were below the bird‟s requirements for optimum productivity. In conclusion, Poultry keepers must provide sufficient supplementation to their birds rather than simply throwing leftovers away to the birds