COMPARATIVE EVALUATION OF GROWTH PERFORMANCE OF NIGERIAN INDIGENOUS, FUNAAB ALPHA AND BRAHMA CHICKENS

Abstract

This study was carried out on Nigerian indigenous, FUNAAB Alpha and Brahma chicken at the poultry breeding unit of the Teaching and Research farm of College of Animal Science and Livestock Production, Federal University of Agriculture Abeokuta, Ogun State Nigeria. The aim of the study was to evaluate the growth performance of the Nigerian indigenous, FUNAAB Alpha and Brahma chicken. A total of 150 birds were used for this experiment comprising 50 Nigerian indigenous, 50 FUNAAB Alpha and 50 Brahma chicken. Growth parameters such as body weight, shank length, breast girth and keel length were collected on a 14-day interval for a period of 13 weeks. Growth data collected were analyzed using two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) of SAS 9.2 and the relationship between measured growth parameters of the three chicken breeds were determined using Pearson correlation. The results showed that body weight and other linear body measurements of birds increased as age advanced with Braham chicken performing better followed by the FUNAAB Alpha chicken while the Nigerian indigenous chicken had the lowest performance. High to moderate correlations ranging from 0.99 to 0.47 were observed between body weight and other linear body measurement indicating a strong association between body weight and other body measurement.