EFFECT OF SEX AND STRAIN ON GROWTH PERFORMANCE OF NIGERIAN INDIGENOUS CHICKENS (FUNAAB ALPHA AND YORUBA ECOTYPE)

Abstract

A thirteen week experiment was conducted to determine the effect of sex and strain on the growth performance of Nigerian indigenous chickens (FUNAAB Alpha and Yoruba ecotype). One hundred and twenty chickens comprising thirty (30) each of FUNAAB Alpha males, FUNAAB Alpha females, Yoruba ecotype males and Yoruba ecotype females were assigned to four treatments arranged in a 2 x 2 factorial arrangement. Significantly (p<0.05) higher final weight (1955.56g), the daily weight gain (14.95g), the daily feed intake (91.18g) and better feed conversion ratio (FCR) (6.20) were observed with the FUNAAB Alpha over the Yoruba ecotype chicken breed with 992.38g, 7.81g, 58.39g and 7.64 respectively.. Similarly, sex significantly (p<0.05) increased the final weight, the daily weight gain, the daily feed intake of male indigenous chicken with better feed conversion ratio than their female counterparts. However, the female FUNAAB alpha chicken recorded significantly (p<0.05) higher final weight (1714.82g), the daily weight gain (12.49g), the daily feed (82.44g) and better FCR (6.66) than both the male and female Yoruba ecotype while the Yoruba ecotype females recoded the least performance. It could be concluded that sex and strain has significant effect on the growth performance of indigenous chicken.