Abstract
This study was conducted in Sekela woreda in Surba Bifeta and Gisha Abay kebeles to characterize chickens phenotypically. A total of 226 chicken owner households were selected randomly. Ten qualitative traits from 446 local chickens and eleven quantitative traits from 48 local chickens were used. The overall predominant plumage color of chicken in the study area were red (34.4%) followed by gray mixture (17.7%) and brownish (17.3%). The commonest comb color observed was red color combs. The majority of chickens possessed comb shape was double shape (44.6%), followed by single (38.8%) comb shape. Double comb shape was predominant in male chicken in Surba Bifeta than Gish Abay Sekela. The result indicated that crest head shape were the common predominant observed head shape in Surba Bifeta both female (40.5%) and male (32.8%). while flat plain head shape were highest proportion observed in Gish Abay both female (86.5%) and male (91.2%), thus there was significancely (p<0.05) differences in head shape between the study area. The overall predominant earlobe color was red (36.1%) followed by red and white (34.3%). Almost all chickens (91.6%) of the study area were not having spurred. The spurs were more proportion observed in male chickens similarly in both study rather than female chickens. The predominant observed eye coloration was orange color in both study area. The most observed predominant feather distributions were normal feathered. The most predominant observed shank color was white (44.2%) followed by yellow (28.5%). Almost all chicken in the study area had no Shank feathers. The plumage color, comb type, sex of chicken, shank color, smoothness of shank, and body size were the major factors that cause vary in the price of chickens. The selection criteria of farmers’ used to breeding hen, egg size, plumage color, broodiness, disease resistance and hatchability was the highest selection criteria and ranking. The quantitative traits were indicated the significance differences (P<0.05) were observed between agro ecology with respect to wing spin (17.61), neck length (18.72), spur length (8.42), chest circumferences (28.3), body length (19.66), wing length (22.51), and shank length (11.47), But not significance differences were observed on the body weights (2.36), wattle length (2.33), thigh circumferences (11.40) and breast width (13.09) traits.
Highlights
Identification and characterization of the chicken phenotypic resources generally requires information on their adaptation to a specific environment, ways of breeding, possession of unique traits of current or future economic value and socio-cultural importance, which are crucial point to decisions on conservation and utilization [34]
Researches on phenotypic characterization of indigenous chickens of Ethiopia have been carried out at Debre Ziet agricultural research center at Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples Regional State (SNNPR) and at North Wollo zone of Amhara regional state that has identified a large variations in morphological appearances, conformation and body weights of indigenous chicken is very important to conduct broad studies that can cover the full characteristics of morphological, functional, and adaptive traits [9, 16]
The brown (26.7%) female and red (67.2%) male were the predominant color in Surba Bifeta, and red color was predominant in Gish Abay both female (29%) and male (67.7%)
Summary
Identification and characterization of the chicken phenotypic resources generally requires information on their adaptation to a specific environment, ways of breeding, possession of unique traits of current or future economic value and socio-cultural importance, which are crucial point to decisions on conservation and utilization [34]. Researches on phenotypic characterization of indigenous chickens of Ethiopia have been carried out at Debre Ziet agricultural research center at Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples Regional State (SNNPR) and at North Wollo zone of Amhara regional state that has identified a large variations in morphological appearances, conformation and body weights of indigenous chicken is very important to conduct broad studies that can cover the full characteristics of morphological, functional, and adaptive traits [9, 16]. Identifying farmers’ breeding objectives, breeding practices and trait preference of local chickens’ producers with “people –Centered” perspective. This will serve as a foundation for proper conservation, utilization and phenotypic diversity improvement program
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
