CHARACTERIZATION OF CHICKEN PRODUCTION SYSTEM AND ON-FARM EVALUATION OF INTRODUCED EXOTIC CHICKEN BREEDS IN GONDAR ZURIA AND KALU DISTRICTS OF AMHARA REGION, ETHIOPIA

A study was conducted in two selected districts of North Gondar (Gondar Zuria) and south Wollo (Kalu) zones of Amhara Regional state, Ethiopia with an aim of describing chicken production system and evaluate the growth, production, reproduction, and adaptability performance of introduced chicken breeds. A total of 120 households having indigenous chicken were selected for the survey work based on systematic random sampling method. Hundred eighty-four households which consent to participate for the on-farm test were selected randomly. Two-way ANOVA using GLM by fitting the two district and four breeds as main effect and interaction among them was used. Statistical analyses were conducted by using SPSS and SAS 9.3. Only 11.7% of the sampled households were female headed. The average number of chickens per households was 6.95. The current chicken breed composition in the study districts were 100%, 17.5% and19.1% local, exotic and crossbreed, respectively. The average age of indigenous cockerels and pullets at first mating and laying were 24.7and 25.2weeks of age, respectively. The average number of clutches per hen per year, eggs per clutch, eggs set per hen for hatching and hatchability percentage in local breeds were 2.8, 13.7, 11.4 and 86.4, respectively. The overall mean effective population size (Ne) and the rate of inbreeding (ΔF) were 2.55 and 19.6%, respectively. The preferred breed of chicken was exotic, cross and local with index values of 0.48,0.30 and 0.22, respectively. About 79% of the respondents had experience of culling non-productive chicken from their flock, with 74.7% of the culling caused by Poor egg production/productivity. The on-farm results showed that the overall mean body weights of hens at 20 weeks of age were 1728, 1697, 1673 and 1653g for Kuroiler, Saso, Sasso RIR and Koekoek breed respectively while the weights for the male chicken at the same age were 1909, 1875, 1847 and 1834g in their respective order. The weight differences between the breeds were highly significant (P