Department of Biology, College of Natural and Computational Science, Kotebe Metropolitan University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Trop Anim Health Prod. 2020 Nov 13;53(1):1. doi: 10.1007/s11250-020-02433-0.
Indigenous village chickens (IVCs) greatly contribute to food security and rural development. Consequently, IVCs cover incidental expenses, economically empower women, and support the livelihood of disadvantaged groups. Interestingly, ritual practices of traditional communities across the Global South utilise IVCs. IVCs provide several ecosystem services and possess adaptation traits resulting in their being able to survive and reproduce with minimal care. Explorative behaviours and general hardiness aroused from natural selection enable IVCs to adapt to a wide range of agroecology and management systems. IVCs are mainly kept in the extensive production system with scarce production inputs. Their management history and uncontrolled mating have enabled IVCs to have unique and diverse phenotypes. Flock size is small, typically less than 100, and the family flock consists of birds of both sexes and different ages making management a demanding task. IVCs lay few eggs (~ 40 to 60 annually) and have small body weights (~ 1.6 kg for adult cock) and low growth rates; nevertheless, they offer multiple as well as unique products and services. Productivity can be improved significantly with appropriate changes to management. There is a wealth of knowledge, wisdom, and practice associated with IVC production, which together with identified cost-effective interventions incorporating improvements in management, nutrition, disease control, and/or genetics have the potential to achieve profitable and sustainable production for the benefit of subsistence farmers and their families.
本土鸡（IVC）对食品安全和农村发展做出了巨大贡献。因此，IVC 可以支付意外开支，为女性提供经济赋权，并支持弱势群体的生计。有趣的是，全球南方的传统社区的仪式实践都用到了 IVC。IVC 提供了多种生态系统服务，并具有适应特征，使它们能够在最少的照顾下生存和繁殖。自然选择产生的探索行为和一般的坚韧使 IVC 能够适应广泛的农业生态和管理系统。IVC 主要在投入生产要素很少的粗放生产系统中饲养。它们的管理历史和不受控制的交配使 IVC 具有独特多样的表型。鸡群规模较小，通常不到 100 只，家庭鸡群由不同性别和不同年龄的鸟类组成，这使得管理成为一项艰巨的任务。IVC 的产蛋量很少（每年约 40 到 60 个），体重小（成年公鸡体重约 1.6 公斤），生长速度慢；然而，它们提供了多种独特的产品和服务。通过对管理进行适当的改变，可以显著提高生产力。IVC 生产涉及到丰富的知识、智慧和实践，与确定的具有成本效益的干预措施相结合，包括改进管理、营养、疾病控制和/或遗传，有可能实现盈利和可持续生产，使自给农民及其家庭受益。
