EVALUATION OF THE PERFORMANCE TRAITS OF CROSSES OF BROILER CHICKENS AND FULANI ECOTYPE CHICKENS

Résumé

An experiment was conducted to evaluate the performance of hybrid chickens developed by crossing broiler parent stock and Fulani ecotype chickens. Two hundred (200) 1-day-old chicks were randomly allotted to 5 treatments. Each treatment had 4 replicates and each replicate had 10 birds. The experimental design was Randomised Complete Block Design. The treatments were Treatment 1: Commercial broiler chickens, Treatment 2: Commercial Noiler chickens, Treatment 3: Hybrid chickens developed by crossing broiler cocks with Fulani hens (Hybrid line 1), Treatment 4: Hybrid chickens developed by crossing Fulani cocks with broiler hens (Hybrid line 2) and Treatment 5: Fulani chickens. The experiment had both starter and finisher phases and lasted 10 weeks. The initial weights of the chicken genotypes reflected the sizes of their dam lines and the weights of the eggs they were hatched from. Genotypes with least initial weights had Fulani ecotype hens as their dam lines. The hybrid crosses T3 and T4 had better weight gain and final weights than the Noiler and Fulani ecotypes though lower than the commercial broilers (T1). Efficiency of feed utilisation followed the
same trend. The carcass characteristics of the hybrids were also better than that of the Noiler and Fulani ecotypes as they laid more meat on their breasts.