EFFECT OF AGE ON VISCERAL ORGANS OF NORMAL FEATHERED MALE INDIGENOUS NIGERIA CHICKENS

Résumé

Male indigenous chickens are more genetically diverse than their female counter parts and age affects the growth, development, anatomy and physiology of animals’ internal organs which could as well affect the performance of the farm animals. Evaluating effect of age on visceral organs of normal feathered Nigeria indigenous male chickens could help in selecting those males that can be used or maintained in breeding programmes to assist in achieving sustainable meat and egg production in Nigeria. Thus, this research was aimed to determine the relative weights and sizes of the visceral
organs of the normal feathered spurred and non-spurred male Nigeria indigenous chickens. A total number of 40 (20 spurred/ between 1 and 2 years and 20 non-spurred/ below 1 year) normal feathered male indigenous Nigeria chickens were used for the experiment. The results showed a significant (P<0.05) difference in the relative weight of large intestine, whole gizzard and stratified squamous epithelial layer of gizzard between the treatments (spurred and non-spurred) with non spurred having the highest relative weight of large intestine, whole gizzard and stratified squamous epithelial layer of gizzard.