On farm Assessment of Management Practices, Productive and Reproductive Performance and On-Station Performance Evaluation of Naked neck and Normal feathered Chicken in Jimma Zone

Abstract

The study was conducted in Jimma Zone of sokoru district to investigate the status of naked neck and normal feathered chicken followed by on station evaluation of their performance from December, 2019 to March, 2020 at Jimma University College of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicines. For on farm assessment a total of 285 households were included. Data on flock size, management practice, and productive and reproductive performance were collected by questioner. A total of 150 day old chicks (75 chicks from each genotype) were hatched for experimental study. Data were collected on hatching weight, body weight, final body weight gain, feed intake, age at first mating and age at first egg laying, egg production, carcass characteristics and external and internal egg qualities. The on farm assessment result revealed that; the overall mean flock size of chickens per household for naked neck was 4.6 while for normal feathered was 10.6. Less market reference is stated as a major reason for less availability of naked neck. Regarding the average age at first egg laying, mean number of clutches, egg production per year per hen and disease and stress resistance ability the naked neck ecotype was significantly higher than normal feathered chickens. However, household interviewed prefer meat from normal feathered chicken than the naked neck once. Correspondingly, the on station result of this study pointed out that, in hatching weight, body weights at all growing stages, average daily body weight grain and feed conversion efficiency the naked neck chicken was higher than the normal feathered. With respect to egg quality parameters, the naked neck chicken significantly (P<0.05) higher in egg weight (48.4gm), albumen width (57.67 mm), albumen height (5.14 mm), albumen weight (26.42 g), yolk weight (16.10 g), yolk height (17.41 mm) and Hough Unit (75.07mm) while normal feathered eggs recorded highest in egg length (5.41cm) and albumen length (7.11 mm) only. Likewise, the naked neck had significantly higher (P<0.05) dressing percentage (73.61) than normal feathered chicken (67.44). In conclusion, the naked neck was superior to those normal feathered chicken in disease and stress resistance ability, productive and reproductive traits while this ecotype was recognizes as less preferred at market which might be due to their physical appearance, cultural taboo and less availability to the market. As a result, creating awareness to change the cultural taboo, increasing the flock size, and enhancing the availability of the naked neck to the market could be ideal decisions to increase the efficient use of this resource. Furthermore, further research is recommended to evaluate their performance in different agro ecologies and conservation should be necessary to maintain the sustainability of those naked neck chickens.