EFFECTS OF SEASONAL VARIATIONS ON FERTILITY AND HATCHABILITY OF ABOR ACRE PLUS BROILER BREEDERS BIRDS IN THE TROPICS

Abstract

This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of seasonal variation on fertility and hatchability of Abor-acre-plus broiler-breeder eggs. Data were collected in a renowned research-based Hatchery in Ibadan, Oyo state. The meteorological data were collected from Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NIMET), data Management Unit (DMU) at Abuja. The data collected were plotted into four subseason; late dry season LDS (Jan.-Mar.), early rainy season ERS (April-June), late rainy season LRS (Jul.-Sept.) and early dry season EDS (Oct. - Dec.) respectively. Data were collected on the egg set, fertile egg, percent fertility, broiler chicks, percent hatchability, hatching rejects and percent of egg set and this was subjected to analysis of variance (ANOVA) for complete randomized design (CRD) using statistical package of SAS 2005 and means with significant difference (p<0.05) among variables were separated using Duncan multiple range test. The early rainy season had the highest means of 87.87% for percent fertility, this was as a results of increase in relative humidity of that sub-season according to meteorological report thus making it potentially the favorable season for having good percent fertility across the season. Higher percent hatchability of 90.61% was recorded in the late rainy. It was concluded that the best fertility and hatchability were in the early and late rainy subseason respectively. It is hence recommended that farmers can explore these sub-seasons or technologically mimic the environmental conditions as both fertility and hatchability for good performance of broiler breeder eggs because they are environmentally influenced