Assessment of long-term production traits of three breeds of exotic commercial layers in the derived Savannah zone of Nigeria

Abstract

This study was carried out to compare production traits of three breeds of exotic commercial layers for a production period of 15 months. The breeds are Isa Brown (IB), Bovan Nera (BN) and Dominant Black (DB) and the traits considered are hen-day egg production, feed efficiency and mortality rate. The general means are 5.24eggs/ bird/week, 0.006/bird/week and 0.16/breed/week for egg production, feed efficiency and mortality rate, respectively. There was highly significant (P<0.01) effect of breed on egg production and feed efficiency but the reverse was the case for mortality rate. On egg production, IB genotype recorded 5.37+0.07 eggs/bird/week while BN breed had 5.41+0.08 eggs/bird/week and the values were similar but superior to DB genotype with 4.94eggs/bird/week. For feed efficiency, IB and BN breeds recorded higher mean values and were similar but superior to DB genotype. The mean values are: IB=0.006+9.05x10-5, BN=0.006+8.53x10-5 and DB=0.005/bird/week. Breed’s effect on mortality rate showed that the three genotypes had similar values, that is, breed has no significant (P>0.05) effect on this trait. There was highly significant (P<0.01) effect of age of birds on egg production. Age 2 (2nd month) recorded the highest mean values while age 14 (14th month) was the lowest. The values respectively, are 6.04+0.16 eggs/bird/week and 4.18+0.16 eggs/bird/week. In addition, there was highly significant (P<0.01) effect of age of birds on feedefficiency regardless of the breed of birds. Age 2 (2nd month) recorded the highest mean values and age 14 (14th month) the lowest. There was also highly significant (P<0.01) effect of age on mortality rate of commercial layers. The long-term production analyses showed that IB and BN genotypes are more productive, feed efficient and could be recommended to farmers as commercially viable breeds of layers.