Effect of Breeding Strategies to Increase Productivity of Indigenous Chicken in-situ in Bangladesh

Performance of three generation (G0,G1 and G2)of indigenous chicken was evaluated to assess the effect of breeding strategies on the productivity. Data on age at sexual maturity (ASM), body weight at sexual maturity (BWM), body weight at one year of age (BWY), eggs per clutch (EGC), clutches per year (CLY), hatchability on set eggs basis (HAT) and survivability of baby chicks up to sexual maturity (SUR) were collected from a total of 1392 birds reared in four rural villages under traditional scavenging system during December 2010 to June 2013. The birds belong to three generations (G0, G1 and G2) and are from three breeding strategies (BS1 use of only pure and superior indigenous mature cocks, BS2 use of pure and superior indigenous mature cocks and mature hens and BS3 use of existing or random indigenous cocks and hens). In G2, the lowest ASM of male birds (156.56±3.39 days) was observed and the highest in BS2, whereas in BS3 high BWM and BWY of male (1200.00±19.99; 1779.63±27.20 gm) and female (994.48±10.86; 1350.38±14.46 gm) birds were observed in BS2. However, in G2 the highest EGC (14.97±0.20), CLY (4.53±0.05) and HAT (89.79±0.96%) were observed in BS1 but the highest SUR (51.15±2.36%) was documented in BS3. Present study revealed that use of superior Indigenous mature cocks alone and exercising cock rotation program can help to increase egg production, hatchability and decrease ASM of female birds of progressive generations in rural low input system. On the other hand, use of both superior Indigenous mature cocks and hens at a time at farmers end and exercising cock rotation program can help to improve body weight in rural low input system.


INTRODUCTION
The contribution of the livestock and poultry sub sector in GDP at constant price is 2.5 percent in the financial year 2011-12 in Bangladesh.Though the share of the Livestock and poultry sub sector in GDP is small, but it has enormous contribution to meet the daily animal protein requirements for human consumption (MoFL, 2013).Islam et al. (2012) found the average number of chickens per household was 9.5, and the national share of commercial and family poultry in terms of egg production is probably almost equal and that of meat production is 60:40 (Bhuiyan, 2011).However, indigenous and local breeds share 90% of the total poultry population in developing countries (Besbes, 2009).According to the estimate of the Department of Livestock Services, the population of Livestock and Poultry were 53.21 million and 296.26 million, respectively but among poultry the number of chickens and ducks were 249.01 million and47.25 million, respectively in 2012-13 (MoFL, 2013).On the other hand, according to MoFL (2013) per capita availability of milk, meat (beef, mutton and chicken) and eggs in Bangladesh were 91.03 ml/head/day, 65.03 gm/head/day and 50.00 nos/head/year respectively where FAO recommended per capita requirement for the same commodities were 250 ml/head/day, 120 gm/head/day and 104.00 nos/head/year, respectively.This huge gap between demand and supply of animal protein as eggs and meat could be minimized by poultry keeping (Das et al., 2008).FAO (2010) observed that among several ways like buying a cock to mate with the existing hens, record-based selection of the hens or buying high-yielding cross-bred chicks for meat or egg production, cock-improvement programme is the most common to influence the smallholder farmers for better production.Higher egg production, body weight gain and low mortality were observed in crossbred of RIR x Fayoumi (Sonali) among four different breed/breed combination under a semi scavenging production system but good management, availability of scavenging feed and rate of feed supplementation were the prerequisite of better performances (Zaman, 2003) though, high-yielding hens often show high levels of cannibalism and feather pecking in free ranging production systems (Sorensen, 2001).However, indigenous chicken perform better with respect to survivability, fertility and hatchability though, they have poor productivity under traditional or extensive production system.The low productivity does not encourage farmers to increase the present level of poultry operation (Huque and Haque 1990;Barua et al., 1998;Islam, 2006).In contrast, improved exotic chickens produce high number of eggs and amount of meat while they are not adapted to the adverse environmental conditions, such as high temperature, disease and shortage of feed (Ali et al., 2000;Islam and Nishibori, 2009).The FAO (2010) suggested that the low input/output smallholder system would continue to exist in many parts of the developing world, sustainable progress in productivity of 2 -4 percent per year will be possible using local chickens.
The demand of indigenous chicken is sky rising and exotic hybrid are not performing up to expected standards in rural village conditions creating a big gap between demand and supply.Breeding efforts to improve Bangladesh chicken genetic resources have been undertaken mainly through an upgrading and/or crossbreeding programme under intensive and semiintensive production systems but with the indigenous Deshi chicken improvement and conservation programme at the smallholder village levels (in-situ) is yet to be tested (Bhuiyan et al. 2005).However, high demand of indigenous (Deshi) cockerels for the tenderness and special taste of their meat was observed (Ahmed and Ali, 2007).Barua and Howlider (1990) found non-descript Deshi chicken more acceptable to rural people as an important source of meat and egg because of low nutritional demand and high resistance to diseases and heat stress shown by Deshi chicken.Moreover, Chowdhury (2012) observed that indigenous chicken were popular among rural, peri-urban and urban people and were usually sold at double the price or even more of the commercial strains of broilers.Nevertheless, under traditional husbandry system indigenous chicken found better matched to the economy of poor livestock keepers in Bangladesh (Bhuiyan, 2011).Hence, local chicken production was an established component of the rural economy and necessity for its development is obvious (Kperegbeyi et al., 2009).The objective of this study was to assess the effect of three breeding strategies on the changes in productivity of indigenous chicken of progressive generations in the low input production system in Bangladesh.

Feeding, vaccination and de-worming of chicken
Birds were raised under traditional scavenging system with feed supplementation (40 to 50 gm/hen or cock).Feed ingredients such as rice kura, rice polish, rice bran, broken rice, wheat, kitchen waste, boiled rice with or without water and table salt separately or in a mixer were includes in this diet.Regular vaccinations against Newcastle and Fowl pox diseases were done as per manufacturer's instruction and de-worming was also done in a regular interval of 4 months period.

Breeding strategy one (BS 1 )
Superior mature cocks were collected from the indigenous chicken gene pool of Bangladesh Livestock Research Institute (BLRI).BLRI cocks possessed a standard body weight of 1500 to 1900 gm, at age 210 days to 224 days, also they were free from disease deformations, regularly vaccinated and de-wormed, alert and responsive.BLRI birds were comparatively better performing than the locally found indigenous cocks.Forty households (HHs) were included in this study and a total of 481 birds of generation zero (G 0 ), one (G 1 ) and two (G 2 ) were individually evaluated.Only pure and superior indigenous mature cocks were distributed among HHs and successive generations of chicks were produced.The superior cocks distributed to each village were rotated in G 1 and G 2 among the households to avoid the full sib and half sib mating.

Breeding strategy two (BS 2 )
Pure and superior indigenous mature cocks and mature hens were distributed and successive generations of chicks were produced.Forty HHs were taken under this study and a total of 488 birds of G 0 , G 1 and G 2 were individually evaluated.Criteria which were used to select superior indigenous mature hens were: appearance, alert and responsive, disease conditions pelvis width (above 20 mm), age (not over 210 days) and body weight (not less than 800 gm).The criteria of superior cocks were same as described under BS 1 .Cocks were rotated in G 1 and G 2 among the households to avoid the full sib and half sib mating.

Breeding strategy three (BS 3 )
Existing or traditional system of breeding of indigenous chicken (mature cocks and mature hens roam together under scavenging system) available at farmers' houses were used and successive generations of progeny were produced.Forty HHs were considered in this study and a total of 423 birds of G 0 , G 1 and G 2 were individually evaluated.

ASM:
The age on which a male bird took part in mating was considered as the ASM of male bird while the age on which a female bird laid her first egg was calculated as the ASM of female bird.
BWM and BWY: Live BWM and BWY were taken using a 5 kg weighing balance (CAMRY, CHINA.).EGC: Number of eggs laid by a hen at a single start until becomes broody with or without gap for one or two days was calculated as eggs per clutch.
CLY: Mean clutch intervals from three consecutive clutches of egg production were used to calculate the number of CLY.Clutch interval between two clutches is a period of days from start of lay for one clutch to the start of lay for the immediate next clutch.
The formula used in calculating CLY is given in Equation 1.

Data collection and analysis
Birds were individually identified using leg and wing bands.Data were collected with the help of an in-depth data collection format developed by GEF Asia project by door to door visit.Farmers were given orientation on the use of data collection sheet for egg laying and hatching information, and periodical visits were made to verify the collected information.Body weight and other information were collected by direct visit to farmer's house.SAS (2006) software was used to calculate descriptive statistics and Duncan Multiple Range Test (DMRT) results on ASM, BWM, BWY, EGC, CLY, HAT and SUR.The least squares means were obtained in SAS GLM using the following generalized linear model: Where, Y ijk = Dependent variables (ASM, BWM, BWY, EGC, CLY, HAT and SUR) μ = Overall population mean for any of the said traits; B i = Effect of i th breeding strategy (where i = 1, 2 and 3), G j = Effect of j th generation (where j = 0, 1 and 2) e ijk = Random residual error associated with Y ijk observation.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Under BS 1 and BS 2, ASM of female birds decreased from G 1 to G 2 but in BS 3, ASM increased from G 1 to G 2 (Table 1).Moreover, in G 2, ASM were lower in BS 1 (168.50±1.12)than BS 2 (169.63±1.05).This result indicated that BS 1 could have contributed more to early maturity of female birds of progressive generations under traditional scavenging production system at rural villages than BS 2 and BS 3. Breeding strategy did not effect on ASM of male and female birds significantly in G 0, G 1 and G 2 (Table 1). in semi scavenging condition.In BS 2, ASM of male birds between G 1 and G 2 did not differ significantly.Though, ASM of male birds was the lowest in BS 3 in G 2, it was even lower in G 1 .Therefore, it is remaining unclear whether BS 3 has shortened the ASM of male in progressive generations or not.The findings of the present study indicated that breeding strategy did not contribute significantly to ASM of male birds in progressive generations.
Breeding strategy (BS) affect significantly on BWM of female birds (Table 2) in G 0 and G 2 but not on those in G 1.However, BWM of female birds were higher in BS 2 than those reported by Kalita et al. (2009) (body weight of indigenous chickens 740.00±11.67gm to 862.25±17.31gm at the age of 5 months) but lower than those reported by Daikwo et al. (2011) (1.05±0.02kg).The BWM of female birds were higher in BS 2 than BS 1 and BS 3 in both G 1 and G 2 Hence, the present observation indicated that BS 2 could contribute more to increase BWM of female birds of progressive generations at in-situ under traditional scavenging production system at rural villages than BS 1 and BS 3. Breeding strategy (BS) affected significantly on BWM of male birds in G 0 , G 1 and G 2 (Table 2).BWM of male birds in BS 1 (1427.63±9.90gm) and BS 2 (1413.16±7.68gm) were higher than BS 3 in G 0 and also the value reported by Daikwo et al. (2011) (1.32±0.02kg).The BWM were higher in BS 2 in G 1 than BS 1 and BS 3 and similarly the BWM were higher in BS 2 (1200.00±19.99gm) in G 2 than BS 1 and BS 3 .The results indicated that BS 2 could have contributed more to increase BWM of male birds in progressive generations under traditional scavenging production system at rural villages than those contributed by BS 1 and BS 3.
Breeding strategy affected significantly of BWY of female birds in G 0 , G 1 and G 2 (Table 3).
In G 1 BWY of female birds were higher in BS 2 than BS 1 and BS 3 .Similarly, in G 2 BWY were higher in BS 2 (1350.38±14.46gm) than BS 1 and BS 3 .It might be indicative that BS 2 could contribute more to increase BWY of female birds of progressive generations under traditional scavenging production system at rural villages than those contribute by BS 1 and BS 3. Breeding strategy (BS) affected significantly on BWY of male birds in G 0 , G 1 and G (Table 3).BWY of male birds increased from G 1 to G 2 in both BS 1 and BS 2 while there were no significant changes observed in BS 3. BWY in G 0, in BS 1 and BS 2 were close to the live weight of cocks as reported by Portas et al. (2010).However, BWY of male birds were the highest in BS 2 in G 1 , and similarly BWY were the highest in BS 2 (1779.63±27.20 gm) in G 2 .This result indicates that BS 2 could contribute more to BWY of male birds of progressive generations under traditional scavenging production system at rural villages than BS 1 and BS 3.
Breeding strategy (BS) affected significantly on EGC (   Neither the breeding strategies nor the generations affected SUR significantly (Table 5).However, SUR (46.55±1.36 to 51.15±2.36%) observed in the present study were higher than those observed by Portas et al. (2010) (10 % to 13 % up to age of eight weeks) and Choprakarn (2007) (30 % up to one year of age in semi scavenging condition).Results of the present study suggest that BS could not contribute to the survivability of chicks.

CONCLUSIONS
Present study revealed that use of superior Indigenous mature cocks alone and exercising cock rotation program could help to increase eggs per clutch, clutches per year, hatchability and decrease age at sexual maturity of female birds in progressive generations in rural low input system.On the other hand, use of both superior indigenous mature cocks and hens at a time and exercising cock rotation program could help to improve body weight at sexual maturity and body weight at one year of age of Indigenous scavenging chicken of Bangladesh.

Table 2 . Body weight at sexual maturity (BWM) of Indigenous chicken in different generations under different breeding strategies (number of observations are given in the parenthesis)
LS=Level of significance.NS= Not Significant and ***significance at lower than 0.1%, xyz Means with the different superscripts differed significantly within the column (P<0.05).abc Means with the different superscripts differed significantly within the row (P<0.05). Note:

Table 3 . Body weight at one year of age (BWY) of male and female birds in different generations under different breeding strategies (number of observations are given in the parenthesis)
: LS=Level of significance, NS= Not Significant, *significance at 1.1 to 5% and ***significance at lower than 0.1%.xyz Means with the different superscripts differed significantly within the column (P<0.05).abc Means with the different superscripts differed significantly within the row (P<0.05). Note

Table 4 . Eggs per clutch (EGC) and clutches per year (CLY) of Indigenous chicken in different generations under different breeding strategies (number of observations are given in the parenthesis)
Portas et al. (2010)gnificantly with BS (Table4) in G 0 and G 2 but did not change in G 1 .However, CLY did not change significantly among generations.The CLY observed in the present study were higher than that was reported byIslam et al. (2012)(3.4±0.25 clutches/year) andShahjahan et al. (2011)(3.50clutches/year).Present study showed that CLY were the highest in BS 1. .Moreover, the highest CLY in BS 1 were observed (4.53±0.05) in G 2. .The present results suggest that BS 1 could have contributed to increase CLY of progressive generations under traditional scavenging production system at rural villages.Hatchability (HAT) has got affected significantly by BS (Table5) within generation among generations.The value of HAT in BS 3 observed in the present study (79.99±1.08 % to 82.01±1.42%)weresimilartoKalitaetal.(2009)and (70 -81 %)Portas et al. (2010).However, the HAT observed in BS 1 and BS 2 were higher thanAzharul et al. (2005)(on fertile egg basis hatchability; 87 %).However, HAT was higher in BS 1 than BS 2 and BS 3 both in G 1 and G 2 .According to the present results, it could be suggested that BS 1 could have contributed more than BS 1 and BS 2 to increase HAT of progressive generations under traditional scavenging production system at rural villages.
Note: LS= Level of significance, NS= Not Significant, *significance at 1.1 to 5%, **significance at 0.1 to 1% and ***significance at lower than 0.1%.xyzMeans with the different superscripts differed significantly within the column (P<0.05).abcMeans with the different superscripts differed significantly within the row P<0.05).Clutches

Table 5 . Hatchability on set egg basis in percent (HAT) and survivability (SUR) of baby chicks up to age of sexual maturity of Indigenous chicken in different generations under different breeding strategies (number of observations are given in the parenthesis)
: NS= Not Significant, **significance at 0.1 to 1% and ***significance at lower than 0.1%. .xyz Means with the different superscripts differed significantly within the column (P<0.05). Note