Avian

Growth and production performance of crossbred chicken providing similar nutritional plane

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Abstract

Poultry farming has created direct and indirect employment opportunities, more specifically chicken rearing support services for over 8.5 million people here in Bangladesh. Chicken meat is one of the cheapest and the most available sources of animal protein, preferred by all classes of people, irrespective of religion and age. Poultry provides animal protein from meat and eggs which are essential for human health. Poultry contributes around 29% of meat whereas, 37% comes from chicken among 11 poultry species. Now we are fulfilling our protein requirements, 136 g of meat per person per day and 147 eggs per person per year (DLS, 2021), as a developed country. In many developed countries in the world peoples consume comparatively almost double number of eggs and meat than us every year. As we are trying to transform our economic status, we should have to increase our minimum protein requirement level to compete with the global standard. In this point of view, this research was undertaken with the objective to develop meat-type chicken by crossing a native breeds with the exotic breed which chicken lines based on growth, productive performance, and meat quality parameters were selected for this study with similar nutritional plane. Chicken lines were fed with recommended nutrients (ME 3000 Kcal/kg and CP 20%) upto 12 weeks of age. Three native chicken genotypes and three exotic chicken genotypes were selected. A total of 250 birds of each up to the 40th week of age was considered for this trial. All data were recorded individually and the analysis was done using SPSS version 27. Crossbred chicks were produced from selective breeding among the chickens from foundation stock. The F2 birds were produced (Line 1 to 6) by crossing among the selected F1 generations. Line 4, Line 5 and Line 6 crossbred attained comparatively more body weight, especially at 8th, 10th, and 12th weeks of age. But in case of 1-8 , 1-10, and 1-12 weeks of age lowest feed intake was found in Line 3 (28.85±1.95g, 33.78±1.96 g & 38.81±2.06 g) crossbred whereas the highest value was found in Line 1 ♀(33.29±2.15 g & 37.76±2.03 g) and Line 6 (42.15±2.16g ) crossbred, respectively. On the other hand, at 1-8 weeks of age, the lowest FCR was found in Line 3 (2.08), followed by the highest in Line 2 (2.77), crossbred. At 1-10 weeks of age, the lowest FCR was found in Line 4 (2.52), and Line 2.74 attained the highest value. At 1-12 weeks of age, the lowest FCR was found in Line 6 (2.56), whereas the highest was found in Line 1 (3.18), crossbred. The lowest age at first lay was found in Line 3 (134 days), and the highest was in Line 5 (165). The highest fertility % was found in Line 2(79.04%) and the lowest in Line 5 (71.18%). Highest hatchability was found in Line 4 (84 .11%) while Line 3 (72.52%) crossbred attained the lowest. So line 3 and line 6 performed better at marketing age (10th and 12th week) considering their productive, reproductive parameters and the meat quality traits of these chickens.

Keywords: 2026

How to Cite:

Sarker, S., (2026) “Growth and production performance of crossbred chicken providing similar nutritional plane”, World Congress on Genetics Applied to Livestock Production Digital Archive 2026(1): 2286804. doi: https://doi.org/10.31274/wcgalp.24125

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