Abstract
A study was conducted in two selected sites (Anuradhapura and Puttlam districts) to phenotypic ally characterize various types of village chicken present in Sri Lanka. Qualitative traits such as characteristics of plumage, comb, shank, eye and earlobe, and body condition score were recorded with a full inventory of management conditions. Quantitative traits included body weight and linear morphometric measurements such as chest circumference, wing length, back length, breast width, keel length, pelvis width, shanklength and shank circumference. Seven distinct phenotypic groups could be identified as naked neck (NNC), long legged (LLC), crest/crown (CC), Giri raj (GRC), commercial crosses (ComC), frizzle feathered (FFC) and non-descript (NVC). NVC group included multiple crosses of other groups. Occurrence of different morphological features varied significantly (p Tropical Agricultural Research Vol. 26 (2): 261 – 273 (2015)
Highlights
In most of the South-east Asian countries, poultry keeping has been practiced for centuries as a backyard operation using scavenging chicken among rural families (Ramlah, 1999)
Sri Lanka too has no exception in this regards where around 43% of the village chicken products is consumed at household level, and backyard poultry contributes for various non-monetary benefits including, manure production, weed and pest control, waste and agricultural byproducts recycling and conservation of valuable genetic resources (Wijayesena et al, 2014)
The first group was the Naked Neck chicken (NNC) which could be distinguishable among other birds due to lack of presence of feathers in their neck area (Fig. 1)
Summary
In most of the South-east Asian countries, poultry keeping has been practiced for centuries as a backyard operation using scavenging chicken among rural families (Ramlah, 1999). Characterization information is essential to design livestock conservation, development and breeding programmes in management of Animal Genetic Resources (AnGR) at local, national, regional and global levels (FAO, 2012). Many efforts have begun to characterize animals in developing countries to provide a foundation for developing sustainable genetic improvement approaches. Chief among these efforts is the program by the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) of the United Nations to develop a Global Strategy for the Management of Farm Animal Genetic Resources or FAnGR (Gibson et al, 2006)
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