Genetic Differences in Performance of Five Chicken Genotypes reared in Five Sub-National Zones in Nigeria

Abstract

Evaluation of the brooding performance of two imported tropically-adapted chicken (Kuroiler and Sasso) and Nigerian indigenous FUNAAB alpha, Shika Brown and Fulani birds was carried out in five sub-national zones in Nigeria. Fifty-three thousand, nine hundred and twenty-three (53,923) day-old chicks were covered. The birds were reared on deep litter from day-old to six weeks of age. Performance characteristics considered were initial body weight (IBW), final body weight (FBW), feed intake (FI), weekly body weight (WBW), body weight gain (BWG), feed conversion ratio (FCR), weekly mortality number (WMN) and percentage mortality (PM). Data were analysed using the General Linear Model (GLM) procedure to determine the fixed effects of genotype and sub-national zone as well as their interaction on the performance characteristics. Body weight (BW) was also predicted from genotype and sub-national zone using automatic linear modeling (ALM), classification and regression tree (CRT), chi-square automatic interaction detection (CHAID) and Exhaustive CHAID data mining algorithms. With the exception of FCR and average weekly number of mortalities (P>0.05) under sub-national zone, every other characteristic was significantly (P<0.05) influenced by the two factors. Sasso birds appeared to be better considering their average weekly body weight (304.35±26.57 g) and average weekly mortality (1.67±0.53%). Birds reared in Kwara State also tended to have a comparative advantage. There was significant (P>0.05) genotype by zone interaction effect on final BW. The regression models collectively revealed that the genotype of birds was the paramount factor to estimate BW. Sasso chickens appear promising in boosting poultry production provided they are able to repeat their good performance at the level of the smallholder farmers in Nigeria.