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.
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