GROWTH PERFORMANCE AND FEED UTILIZATION POTENTIAL OF FUNAAB BROILER ALPHA CHICKEN IN COMPARISON WITH TWO EXOTIC BROILER BREEDS

Abstract

The use of genetic improvement programs in the development of indigenous broiler chicken has become a foray of discovery. In this study, the growth performance and feed utilization potential of the FUNAAB-Alpha broiler in comparison to two exotic broiler chickens (Abor acre and Cobb) for 8 weeks was evaluated. A total of 150 birds were used for this study (50 FUNAAB-Alpha, 50 Abor acre and 50 Cobb broiler chickens). The birds were managed intensively and fed ad-libitum and allowed free access to water. Data collected (8 weeks) were analysed using a two analysis of variance (ANOVA) and significant means were examined (p<0.05). The Cobb breed had the highest body weight at 8 weeks of age (1951.83±71.83g) followed by the Abor acre (1836.51±61.38g) and the least observed is the FUNAAB-Alpha broiler breed (1730.34±53.24g), though not statistically different from the Abor acre breed. However, the Abor acre breed had the best feed conversion ratio (1.46± 0.01) compared to the FUNAAB-Alpha (1.16± 0.08) and Cobb (1.26± 0.03) at 8 weeks of age. Higher values for feed conversion ratio were recorded at the early stages of ages for all three breed of chickens. The FUNAAB-Alpha broiler chicken had the lowest feed conversion from 6 weeks to 8 weeks of age (1.36±0.11 to 1.16±0.08) when compared to it exotic counter parts. This study therefore indicates that the FUNAAB-Alpha broiler chicken is highly comparable to the exotic broiler breeds; Abor acre and Cobb in both growth performance and feed utilization potential