Effect of breeding strategies to increase productivity of indigenous chicken in-situ in Bangladesh

<p>Performance of three generation (G₀,G₁ and G₂)of indigenous chicken was evaluated to assess the effect of breeding strategies on the productivity. Data on age at sexual maturity (ASM), body weight at sexual maturity (BWM), body weight at one year of age (BWY), eggs per clutch (EGC), clutches per year (CLY), hatchability on set eggs basis (HAT) and survivability of baby chicks up to sexual maturity (SUR) were collected from a total of 1392 birds reared in four rural villages under traditional scavenging system during December 2010 to June 2013. The birds belong to three generations (G₀, G₁ and G₂) and are from three breeding strategies (BS₁ use of only pure and superior indigenous mature cocks, BS₂ use of pure and superior indigenous mature cocks and mature hens and BS3 use of existing or random indigenous cocks and hens). In G₂, the lowest ASM of male birds (156.56±3.39 days) was observed and the highest in BS₂, whereas in BS₃ high BWM and BWY of male (1200.00±19.99; 1779.63±27.20 gm) and female (994.48±10.86; 1350.38±14.46 gm) birds were observed in BS₂. However, in G₂ the highest EGC (14.97±0.20), CLY (4.53±0.05) and HAT (89.79±0.96%) were observed in BS₁ but the highest SUR (51.15±2.36%) was documented in BS3. Present study revealed that use of superior Indigenous mature cocks alone and exercising cock rotation program can help to increase egg production, hatchability and decrease ASM of female birds of progressive generations in rural low input system. On the other hand, use of both superior Indigenous mature cocks and hens at a time at farmers end and exercising cock rotation program can help to improve body weight in rural low input system.</p><p>Tropical Agricultural Research Vol. 26 (3): 517 – 527 (2015)</p>