A study was conducted during the year 2000 to investigate flock size and egg production performance of backyard chicken maintained by woman in rural areas of Peshawar, NWFP, Pakistan. One hundred and thirty female farmers were selected at random from 13 randomly selected nearby villages of Peshawar city. Average flock size maintained by a household in rural areas of Peshawar was 26.1 ± 0.69 chicken with a higher number of adult birds (14.5 ± 0.50) than chicks (11.6 ± 0.41). Fewer chickens was found in flocks given no housing facility (24.3 ± 1.02 ) than those given part time housing facility (29.4 ± 0.85). Higher number of chickens/household was found with flock owners vaccinating their chicken against ND+Fowl-pox than those not vaccinating their chicken against these diseases. On the average 2315 ± 66.2 eggs were obtained by a household. Egg production/bird irrespective of the breed was found to be 142 ± 3.17 eggs. Of the total eggs produced, 703 ± 3.8 eggs were consumed by the household on annual basis. More eggs per bird were produced by Rhode Island Red (RIR) than Desi chicken. Flocks given a part time housing facility produced more eggs/bird than those given no housing. Flocks reared in normal human dwellings also produced higher number of eggs per bird than those given no housing. More eggs/bird were obtained from flocks vaccinated against ND+fowl-pox disease than non-vaccinated flocks. RIR produced higher number of eggs/bird under scavenging conditions than desi, Fayumi and White Leghorn chickens. Effective health coverage, housing facilities and rearing of highly productive chicken will improve backyard chicken production in rural areas of Peshawar.

This study was conducted in four Peasant Associations in Jamma district. A total of 120 households from four PAs were involved in the study. Ninety eight percent of farmers were supplementing extra feeds and water for their chickens, with the main proportion of food leftover (26.4%) followed by spoiled grain (25.1%). The proportions of households providing supplementary feeding were: 19.8, 21.5, 37.3 and 21.4% in the morning, at noon, afternoon and evening respectively. Most of the households (77.7%) were not giving feeds separately to the flock compositions. Households were practicing of chicken selection with the main characters of egg productivity (35.4) and body weight (38.4%). Majority of households (78%) were using their living room for birds penning at night and women were more (72%) responsible for flock management. The larger eggs with oval shape and smooth in eggshell were the preferred characters in selection of incubating eggs. Farmers (38%) adapted a practice of mixing local eggs with exotic or crossbred eggs while incubating for better hatchability of exotic or crossbred eggs. Around 73% the respondents reported that the highest mortality of chicks was occurring up to 2 weeks of age. But around 12.6% of the households were treating their sick birds with traditional-treatments. Ninety-one per cent of farmers pointed out that more frequently occurring and devastating disease was Newcastle Disease.

Two studies were conducted: the first study evaluated the production potential of indigenous (Tswana) chickens under an extensive free-range management system in the Gaborone agricultural region of Botswanal; and the second study was a survey of 25 randomly selected, commercial small-scale broiler farms in the Southern region of Botswana. Data were obtained using a structured questionnaire, interviews and direct observations of the birds and their management in the two systems. Study 1 involved 85 farmers. Ten different common supplementary feeds fed to the free-range chickens together with soil samples from where the chickens roost were collected. The feeds were: sorghum grain (Sorghum bicolor), maize grain (Zea mays), jugo bean, also known as bambara groundnut (Vigna subterranea), tepary bean (Phaseolus acutifolius), millet grain (Pennisetum glaucum), melon seeds (Colocynthis citrullus [Citrullus lanatus]), Tswana water melon fruit (whole), sorghum milo, maize bran and sorghum beer residue (moroko). Mean adult body weight of the birds (n=713) was 2.2 and 2.0 kg for cocks and hens respectively. Average egg weight (n=188) was 48 g with an annual production of 34 eggs laid in 2 to 3 clutches. Production varied little among flocks. Sexual maturity was attained at about 6 months for females. The crude protein content of the feeds (as-fed basis) given as supplements was: maize grain 9.8%, millet 6.5%, sorghum 11.1%, tepary bean 18.5% and jugo bean 15.8%. All the feeds had a low level of calcium, for example 0.22% for melon seeds. The farmers kept the chickens for home consumption and occasional sales. In study 2, all the farmers practiced intensive housing on deep litter. The number and size of the poultry houses ranged from one to eight, with floor area of less than 100m2 to 1000m2. Numbers of chickens in each batch ranged from less than 1000 to 10000 with about 4 batches in a year. The broiler strains were Ross hybrid, Indian River and Cobb with 56% of the farmers keeping Ross hybrid. Various heating methods were used for brooding with more than 40% using gas as a source of heat. Vaccinations for either gumboro and/or Newcastle were used by 76% of the farmers. Feed was provided ad libitum in all instances.

Nigerian indigenous chicken (NIC) from three agro-ecological zones (Rain Forest, RF; Derived Savanna, DS; and Guinea Savanna, GS) were evaluated for age at first egg, egg production and egg weight, percent hen-day egg production and percent laying mortality. Data for this work were collected over a period of 72 weeks. A total of 579 eggs from DS and RF zones and 505 growers from DS, GS and RF were evaluated. Data were compiled by Dbase IV and analysed using the General Linear Model (GLM) procedure of Statistical Analysis System (SAS). Agro-ecological zones, age and sex were the fixed effects in the model. Means for each variable effect were compared using the Least-Square Analysis of Variance and Duncan option of SAS. For all the traits evaluated, there was no significant difference between the chickens from the three ecological zones. Hence, the Nigerian indigenous chickens from these zones cannot be said to belong to different genetic groups.

The mode of ownership of chicken in the family was various types, for instance shared ownership constituted about (57%) followed by individual ownership (43%) among the members of the households. More than around 70% of overall care-taking of chickens, feeding of chickens, cleaning of birds-quarter, treating of sick birds, decision for off take of poultry products were the responsibility of women. The major criteria used for judging of the price of local chickens were body weight (34.2%), plumage color (33.3%) and comp-type (32.4%). Fluctuations in the prices of the village chicken and chicken-products were mainly due to purchasing power of the consumers (33.4), fasting (33.2), and availability of products (32.5%). Almost all farmers were selling their chicken and chicken products in local markets.

The production of innovative composition (high omega group fatty acids and antioxidants-carotenoids) broiler chicken meat and egg opportunities in Latvia was assessed. After feeding the poultry with feed enriched with fatty acids and antioxidants, broiler meat and eggs of innovative composition containing a higher amount of omega-3 (in meat by 1.7%, in eggs by 2.7%), omega-6 (in meat by 3.9%, in eggs by 3.2%) and carotenoids (0.44 mg kg-1 in meat and in eggs by 6.9 mg kg-1) when compared with the content of commercial products are obtained. Nutrition costs of innovative composition-based broiler chicken meat production are LVL 20 higher and nutrition costs of egg production are LVL 1.49 higher per 1000 units of output than in the standard version of the poultry feeding-stuff. The poultry farming production of an innovative composition, however, is economically profitable due to the higher rates of poultry productivity. In the case of an innovative composition-based yield the potential profit at the currently equal cost realisation of poultry meat and eggs is higher when calculating 293.47 LVL per 1000 broiler chickens and 5.52 LVL per 1000 eggs in comparison with commercial production.

This study was carried out to investigate the productivity and the natural disease resistance potential of free-ranging local chickens in Tanzania. A total of 84 adult free-ranging local chicken ecotypes were studied, namely: Mbeya, Morogoro-medium, Ching’wekwe, Kuchi and Singamagazi. Adult body weight, body length, shank length and egg weight were assessed and compared. Average body weight for hens and cocks was 1441g (800 to 2,300g) and 2261g (1000 to 3500g), respectively. Egg weight averaged 41.6g (27 to 72g). Mean body length for hens and cocks was 21.6cm (17 to 26cm) and 24.6cm (21 to 29cm), respectively, and mean shank length 9.7cm (7 to 12cm) and 12.7cm (8.5 to 15cm), respectively. Between ecotypes significant differences were seen in the above parameters. The disease resistance potential was tested on 10 offspring of each ecotype, excluding the Mbeya. Twenty chickens (five from each of the four ecotypes) aged 12 weeks were inoculated with Newcastle disease virus while another 20 aged 20 weeks were inoculated with Salmonella gallinarum. Five chickens per group that were not challenged were used as controls. Following oral, ocular and nasal drop inoculation with Newcastle disease virus, the chickens developed clinical signs of Newcastle disease as from day three after infection. Mortality started on day five after infection, and all but one chicken were dead by day seven after infection. The 20 chickens, infected orally with S. gallinarum, showed clinical signs of fowl typhoid on day three after infection. Mortalities started on day seven after infection and by day 12 after infection 13 chickens had died. Seven birds survived without visible signs of the disease, including all five from the Kuchi ecotype and one each of the Morogoro-medium and Ching’wekwe ecotypes. At necropsy enlarged and congested liver and spleen, and catarrhal enteritis of the small intestines were seen. The surviving birds were sacrificed on day 14 after infection. Neither the sacrificed surviving birds nor the controls showed the above necropsy picture. It was concluded that free-ranging local chicken ecotypes in Tanzania differ in both productivity and disease resistance potential.

Information from 400 randomly selected female farmers was obtained during the year 1997 to assess the production performance of backyard chicken in Charsadda district, North West Frontier Province (NWFP), Pakistan. Only 16.3% of the farmers were regularly vaccinating their flocks. The majority of the farmers initiated immunization only at the time of disease onset (29.7%) followed by those (28.5%) who did not vaccinate. A high proportion (53.3%) provided no housing, 29.8% provide night shelters and 17% had no housing. Average flock size was 22.0 birds, comprising 8.86 chicks, 2.03 pullets and 11.1 layers. The local Desi chicken dominated the flocks (10.2 birds) followed by Fayumi (6.76), Rhode Island Red (4.20) with White Leghorn least popular (0.83 ). Average mortality in a flock was 23.6%. Mortality was higher in layers (28.1%) than in pullets (18.7%) and chicks (24.2%). Significantly higher losses were found in White Leghorn (35.6%) than in Desi chicken (17.5%). Similarly, higher mortality was found in chicken without housing facilities (26.7%) than in those with access to houses (21.6%). Regular vaccination was associated with higher productivity than vaccination at the onset of disease or no vaccination. Average annual egg production was 76.4 for Desi, 109 for Fayumi, 169 for Rhode Island and 153 for White Leghorn. Mean hatchability was 61.2% with an annual frequency of 4.6 settings and 15.1 eggs set per broody hen. Farmer preference for the "local" Desi chicken reflected their greater capacity to survive and adapt to scavenging management systems. Fayumi and Rhode Island chickens appear to merit further studies as breeds that could improve the productivity of scavenging systems, as they had higher egg production and only slightly higher mortality than Desi chicken.

A crossbreeding experiment was carried out between two local strains of Mandarah (MN) and Matrouh (MA) chicken. Thirty-four sires and 400 dams from each strain were used to produce four genetic groups. Body weights of 3067 chicks at hatch (BW0), 4 (BW4), 8 (BW8), 12 (BW12) and 16 (BW16) weeks of age and their daily gains in weight during the age intervals from 0-4 (DG4), 4-8 (DG8), 8-12 (DG12) and 12-16 (DG16) weeks were evaluated. Multi-trait animal model (MTAM) was used to estimate direct additive genetic (GI) and maternal additive genetic (GM) and direct heterosis (HI) effects. Heritabilities were estimated and breeding values (PBV) were also predicted. Estimates of Heritabilities (h2) for growth traits ranged from 0.14 to 0.58. The percentages of GM were in favour of the MA dams and ranged from –1.47 to –6.70 % for body weights and from –1.40 to –7.73 % for gains in weight. Estimates of HI (P