Evaluation of Reciprocal Crosses of Improved Horro Chicken with Koekoek and Kuroiler Chicken Breeds
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Date
2021
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
The study was designed to evaluate the performance of exotic dual purpose chicken breed (Koekoek and Kurioler) crosses with an improved Horro chicken under reciprocal mating. The experiment was carried on seven genotypes, including three pure lines (H), (K), (Ku) and their direct (KxH), (Ku x H) and reciprocal crosses (H x K) and (H x Ku). A total of 446-day-old chicks from the seven genotypes were distributed randomly between pens with three replications using a completely randomized design. Data on body weight at hatch (DO), 4, 8,12,16 and 20 weeks of age, body weight gains, feed conversion ratio, egg fertility and hatchability in %, age at first egg (AFE), body weight at first egg, egg production until 40 weeks of age, egg quality and mortality were observed during the experimental period. Crossbreeding effects were estimated using the information on mode of inheritance of chosen traits to select potential cross combination for development of a synthetic breed. The result showed that highest (P< 0.05) mean body weight and body weight gain was recorded in crossbred chicken HxKu followed by Ku×H, and purebred Kuroiler at 8- and 12-weeks age. Moreover, genotype had significant effect on most egg production traits studied. Older age at first egg was recorded in improved Horro (156) followed by crossbred Hx K (150.33) whereas the lowest number of days for AFE was recorded for crossbred HxKu (135) followed by KxH (136.67) and Ku x H (139.33). In comparing crossbred, the heaviest body weight at first egg was registered for crossbred pullet Hx Ku (2448 g) followed by Ku x H (2372.33 g) whereas the lowest body weight was recorded for K x H (1726.33 g) followed by Hx K (1777.78 g) crossbred pullet. In comparing all the genotypes, HxKu crossbred hen showed superior (P<0.05) performance in HHEP, HDEP, egg number except egg mass. However, egg weight was higher for Kuroiler, Ku×H and H×K with comparable values but lowest egg weight was registered for improved Horro chickens. The estimates of the direct additive (Ae) and heterosis effects (He) for body weight were significantly (P<0.05) positive at most of studied age for both crosses. The present study showed that exotic gene of the Kuroiler and Koekoek chicken breeds had attributed a significant role in the improvement of improved Horro chicken. From this study it can be recommended that crossbred hens sired by improved Horro (H x Ku) for growth and egg production potential in the forthcoming synthetic breed development program. However, more research is needed in the areas of morphometric traits characterization, carcass characteristics evaluation, alertness score trait examination, and genotype adaptation.
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Keywords
Body weight, Breed, crossbreeding effect, egg production, Heterosis