PERFORMANCE AND CARCASS CHARACTERISTICS OF NOILER CHICKENS REARED UNDER DIFFERENT HOUSING TYPE

Abstract

The study was conducted at Livestock Teaching and Research Farm, Department of Animal Science,Federal University Dutsin-Ma Katsina State. The aim of this study was to determine the Performance andwelfare parameters of Noiler birds reared under two different housing types with or without pasture.
Noiler is an improved indigenous dual-purpose breed of chicken developed in Nigeria to meet nationaldemands for food supply. From the result obtained, the weight gain was increased while FCR wasreduced by given Noiler access with pasture. The recent increase in free-range meat production andconsumption has led to extensive investigation in this area, especially, with regards to Nigerianindigenous breed. Pasture consumption results in dilution of energy and protein intake and may cause impaction and dietary electrolyte imbalances. One hundred and twenty (120) chickens were brooded for 4weeks and thereafter allotted to three (3) treatment for a period of 12 weeks. Each treatment was allotted60 chicks (20 chicks per replicate) with three replicates of 20 chicks. On the 84th day, a total of 36 birds were randomly selecte for slaughtering to obtain the carcass yield, giblet and offal analysis weredetermined. The O-P/outdoor with barren land shows a significant difference in terms of final body weight, weight gained and total feed intake (1.71%, 0.99% & 4.52%). The result shows that, there is significant differences between O-P to DL and O+P. Meanwhile, DL and O+P recorded highest scores of FCR and FC (4.89%, 4.86% & 1095.20%, 1087.62%) respectively.