Abstract
This work is part of a long-term selection program carried out (i) to assess the performance of three indigenous chicken genotypes under intensive management and (ii) to evaluate the response to selection of three indigenous chicken genotypes. A total of 5945 day-old chicks representing three types of indigenous chicken genotypes namely Naked Neck (NN), Hilly (H) and Non-descript Deshi (ND) were hatched for foundation generation (G 0 ), first generation (G 1 ), second generation (G 2 ) and third generation (G 3 ) for this study. In every generation, selection was practiced at 40-week of age on the basis of an index comprising the parameters of age at first egg (AFE), body weight (BW), egg production (EP) and egg weight (EW). The average body weights of ND, H and NN were 1074±4.0, 1279.6±5.5 and 1041.0±5.7 g, respectively at the age of 16 weeks. The mean daily weight gain of indigenous chicken at 0-8, 0-12, 0-16 week and 0-maturity were 7.8±0.02, 9.4±0.02, 9.8±0.02 and 8.2±0.03 g, respectively. The lowest hatchability was found in NN genotype (77.5%). The average egg production of ND, H and NN were 83.9±1.1, 76.2±1.4 and 74.0±1.5, respectively. Among the three indigenous chicken types, ND had significantly higher (p Tropical Agricultural Research Vol. 26 (4): 596 – 607 (2015)
Highlights
The improvement of productivity of indigenous chicken is a long felt requirement in Bangladesh
Significant body weight differences among the genotypes were observed at the age of sexual maturity, with the highest body weight observed for H (1499.0±9.5 g) genotype
Non-descript Deshi chicken has a potential in improving for egg production purposes whereas Hilly chicken will be suitable for meat purposes
Summary
The improvement of productivity of indigenous chicken is a long felt requirement in Bangladesh. Indigenous chickens of Bangladesh are categorized as Non-descriptive Deshi (ND), Naked Neck (NN), Hilly (H), Aseel (AS) and Jungle fowl (Bhuiyan et al, 2005) in respect of the morphological variations as well as production performances. Bangladesh has a rich heritage of indigenous chicken germplasm, which strongly supported decisive measures for conserving indigenous genetic resources. Depending on the phenotype Bhuiyan et al (2009) have predicted that indigenous chickens are genetically diluted in about 60%. Indiscriminate random mating among indigenous types of chicken and unplanned crossing with exotic breeds are the main contributors for genetic erosion leading to loss of original characteristics of indigenous chicken.
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