ASSESSING THE HUSBANDRY PRACTICES, PRODUCTIVITY AND EGG QUALITY TRAITS OF LOCAL AND SASSO CHICKENS IN TWO AGRO-ECOLOGIES OF DARO LEBU DISTRICT, WEST HARARGHE, ETHIOPIA

Abstract

In Ethiopia, chicken production is an important and integral part of most households in rural, urban and peri-urban areas. Even if Ethiopia owned huge chicken population with diversified chicken ecotypes, their production potential is limited because of poor management practices. The objective of this study was to assess the husbandry practices, productivity and evaluate the egg quality traits of local and Sasso chickens reared in two agro ecologies of Daro Lebu district, west Hararghe, Ethiopia. A total of 270 households were randomly selected and interviewed using semi-structured questionnaires. For the evaluation of egg qualities, a total of 240 freshly laid eggs from local and Sasso T44 chickens were used. All Survey data were analyzed using (SPSS) except for egg production traits, while egg production and egg quality parameters were analyzed by SAS. The overall mean flock size per household was 8.38. The chicken production system of the study district is a backyard extensive production System (94.1%), where local chicken ecotypes are dominated. The chicken keeping in the district is highly undertaken by women (80.4%. All chicken owners in the study area provided supplementary feed and water to their birds. Cereal grains such as maize, sorghum and wheat were the major supplementary feeds the respondents used for their chicken. About 76.7% of interviewed farmers did not construct separate chicken house. Newcastle disease (NCD) was the most prevalent and economically important disease affecting chickens (74.1%). About 71.9% of the interviewed households had not vaccinated their chickens against diseases. Diseases followed by predation, lack of veterinary services, poor housing, shortage of supplementary feeds and lack of extension services were found to be the major constraints of chicken production in both agro ecologies of the study district. The average age at first egg laying was 7.06 and 5.93 for local and SassoT44) chickens, respectively. Sasso T44 chickens produced higher number of eggs/hen/year (230.56) than local (51.04). Agro ecology has an effect on both breed chickens in terms of age at first egg and total number of eggs produced per week and per year with higher results in midland. There was Significant difference (P<0.05) between the two agro ecological zones for egg weight, egg length, albumin height, albumin weight and yolk height with higher results recorded in the midland. Breed differences had highly significant effect on all external egg quality traits and some of internal egg quality traits such as: albumin weight, yolk weight and yolk height with higher results in exotic (Sasso T44) chickens than local. The interaction of agro ecology and breed also had an effect on egg weight, egg width, egg length and albumin weight. Local chickens exhibited higher result in terms of some egg quality traits such: as egg shape index, Haugh unit and yolk color than Sasso chickens.