Liswaniso Simushi, Mwambilwa Kabemba, Odubote Kolawole, Tyasi Thobela Louis, Mweni Mwape, Sun Xue, Xu Rifu, Qin Ning
Department of Animal Breeding, Genetics and Reproduction, College of Animal Science and Technology, Jilin Agricultural University, Changchun, Jilin, China.
Modern Agricultural Technology International Cooperative Joint Laboratory of the Ministry of Education, Changchun, China.
Front Vet Sci. 2024 Jul 29;11:1429869. doi: 10.3389/fvets.2024.1429869. eCollection 2024.
Indigenous chickens are very important to households for income and protein. However, their performance is usually poor, especially under small-scale farmer management, despite their potential to perform better. The performance of these chickens can be improved by selective breeding. However, for this to be a success, there is a need to understand the phenotypic and production characteristics of these chickens fully. Hence, this study aimed to characterize the phenotypes of these chickens and their production system among small-scale farmers.
A structured questionnaire was administered to 177 small-scale farmers. A total of 538 chickens whose mean weight was 1.66 kg were individually phenotyped in Luapula, Muchinga, and Northern provinces of Zambia.
Ownership of the indigenous chickens was dominated by females (65.37%), with most (64.31%) having attained primary education. Most housed their chickens in family houses (42.03%). All the farmers let their chickens scavenge for their feed, with 45.58% of them providing basic supplementation. Most (84.10%) farmers bought their breed stock from within their community and had a mean flock size of 12.5 chickens/household, which they mostly (78.09%) kept as free-range. The majority (77.39%) practiced culling, with low productivity being the most common reason for culling (84.45%). Only 59.01% of farmers practiced selective breeding, while 86.22% practiced uncontrolled mating. The age at first mating for cocks and hens was 6.8 months and 6.34 months, respectively, with 6.73 months being the age at first egg. It takes 15.43 days to reach a mean clutch size of 13 eggs. The hatchability and mortality at 8 weeks were 83.44% and 67.57%, respectively. All chickens were sold as live chickens, and the majority (51.59%) of the farmers sold their chickens within the community at 7.23 months. Diseases and predators were the most common challenges affecting farmers in the study area. Consultations with veterinarians, vaccinations, and deworming were uncommon while treating sick chickens mostly using ethnoveterinary medicines was common. The most common qualitative traits were brown (27.88%) and mixed (26.77%) plumage color, white skins (91.45%) and shanks (48.70%), single comb type (91.08%), red earlobe (55.76%), and orange eyes (78.07%). All linear body measurements positively and significantly correlated with the body weight averaging 1.66kgs, an indicator that selection for any of them would result in a corresponding increase in body weight. Principal Component Analysis extracted two components with 69.38% of the total variation.
The diversity in phenotypes of these chickens and their production systems indicate huge potential for improvement by implementing breeding programs.
土种鸡对家庭的收入和蛋白质供应非常重要。然而，尽管它们有表现得更好的潜力，但通常性能较差，尤其是在小规模农户的管理下。通过选择性育种可以提高这些鸡的性能。然而，要取得成功，需要充分了解这些鸡的表型和生产特性。因此，本研究旨在描述这些鸡的表型及其在小规模农户中的生产系统特征。
对177户小规模农户进行了结构化问卷调查。在赞比亚的卢阿普拉、穆钦加和北部省份，对平均体重为1.66千克的538只鸡进行了个体表型分析。
土种鸡的所有者以女性为主（65.37%），大多数（64.31%）接受过小学教育。大多数人将鸡养在家庭住宅中（42.03%）。所有农户都让鸡自行觅食，其中45.58%的农户提供基本补充饲料。大多数（84.10%）农户从社区内购买种鸡，平均每户鸡群规模为12.5只，其中大部分（78.09%）以自由放养方式饲养。大多数（77.39%）农户进行淘汰，低生产力是淘汰的最常见原因（84.45%）。只有59.01%的农户进行选择性育种，而86.22%的农户进行非控制性交配。公鸡和母鸡的初配年龄分别为6.8个月和6.34个月，初产蛋年龄为6.73个月。达到平均窝蛋数13枚需要15.43天。8周龄时的孵化率和死亡率分别为83.44%和67.57%。所有鸡都作为活鸡出售，大多数（51.59%）农户在社区内7.23个月龄时出售鸡。疾病和捕食者是研究区域影响农户的最常见挑战。与兽医咨询、接种疫苗和驱虫并不常见，而大多使用民族兽医药治疗病鸡则很常见。最常见的质量性状是棕色（27.88%）和混合（26.77%）羽毛颜色、白色皮肤（91.45%）和胫部（48.70%）、单冠类型（91.08%）、红色耳垂（55.76%）和橙色眼睛（78.07%）。所有线性体尺测量值与平均体重1.66千克呈正相关且显著相关，这表明选择其中任何一个体尺都会导致体重相应增加。主成分分析提取了两个成分，占总变异的69.38%。
这些鸡的表型及其生产系统的多样性表明，通过实施育种计划有巨大的改进潜力。
