Assessment of Village Chicken Production System and Evaluation of Egg Quality in Dedo and Mana Districts of Jimma Zone, South West Ethiopia

Abstract

The study was conducted in Dedo and Mana Districts of Jimma Zone, South West, Ethiopia, to assess village chicken production systems and to analyze chicken egg quality parameters. A total of 12 kebeles were purposively selected based on their potential of chicken production, representativeness and accessibility to run the study. About 276 households were randomly selected for the survey part and interviewed by semi-structured questionnaire. To conduct egg quality analysis, 880 eggs were collected from local market and farm gate. The main purpose of keeping chicken in Dedo and Mana woreda in order of importance were income generation (56.9%), household consumption (16.3%), egg production (14.5%), breeding/hatching (10.5%) and cultural/religious ceremonies (1.8%). The average flock size per household in Dedo and Mana woreda were 6.24 and 7.04 chicken, respectively with overall average mean of 6.64±5.7 chickens/HH. About 23.5% chicken owners in Mana woreda constructed separate overnight shelter for chicken as compared to 17.4% chicken owners of Dedo woreda. On average (97%) chicken owners practiced supplementary feeding of chicken in Mana than 93.8% chicken owners of Dedo woreda with overall average of 95.3% chicken owners. In the study districts, the major sources of supplementary feeds for chicken were both home grown crop and purchase (42.6%), home grown crop alone (52.1%) and purchased from local market (5.4%), and the major water sources for chickens in the study areas were pipe, river and rainy water. Women were the major responsible member of the household who were involved in various village chicken husbandry activities like; cleaning chicken’s house and feeding chickens, represented by 70.8% and 55.9% in Dedo while 71.3% and 56.5% in Mana Wereda, respectively. On the other hand, men were involved mainly on shelter construction and taking sick chickens for treatment, constituted 60.9% and 61.5% in Dedo while 61.7% and 63.5% in Mana wereda, respectively. The average age of cockerels at first mating and pullets at first egg laying in Dedo woreda were 6.32 and 6.28months, respectively and 5.98 and 6.18months in Mana woreda, respectively. The average number of eggs laid/hen/clutch, average number of egg laid/hen/year and average clutch/hen/year in Dedo woreda were 12.5, 45.6 and 3.86, respectively while 13.2, 49.6 and 3.77 in Mana Woreda, respectively. The average mean egg weight, shape index, Hough unit, albumen height, yolk height and egg strength of eggs collected from study districts of farm gate and local market were 48.1g,73.84%, 72, 4.6mm, 15.89mm,4.1kg and 44.1g, 73.84%, 69.6,4.26mm, 15.4mm, 3.5kg, respectively. The average mean of TABC of eggs collected from study districts of farm gate and local market were 2.9log10CFU/ml and 2.62log10CFU/m while 2.86log10CFU/ml and 2.59log10CFU/ml of TCC, respectively. In conclusion, the results of the current study revealed that the productivity of village chickens was low under the prevailing husbandry practices suggesting that further efforts need to be exerted to improve productivity of village chicken in sustainable way. Ensuring quality and safety of chicken eggs by undertaking proper handling and storage of eggs with all-inclusive and multi-disciplinary provision of services like training on modern poultry production system, proper handling and storage of eggs at the marketing and production time in both Dedo and Mana Woredas of Jimma Zone should also be practiced.