Livestock Research for Rural Development 17 (2) 2005 Guidelines to authors LRRD News

Citation of this paper

Comparison of growth rate and meat yield characteristics of cockerels between Fayoumi and Sonali under village conditions in Bangladesh

I M Azharul, H Ranvig* and M A R Howlider**

Department of Livestock Services, MOFL, Bangladesh and Network for Smallholder Poultry Development ,
KVL, Denmark; (Postal address: 689/A Khilgaon, Shipaibag, Dhaka 1219, Bangladesh)
azharul72@yahoo.com
*Department of Animal Science and Animal Health, The Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University(KVL),
Büllowsvej 17, 1870 Fredericksburg C., Denmark.
Han.Ranvig@ihh.kvl.dk
**Department of Poultry Science, Bangladesh Agricultural University,
Mymensingh, Bangladesh.
marhowlider@yahoo.co.uk


Abstract

 204 cockerels of Fayoumi and crossbred Sonali ( 8-week old) were divided equally per breed into 6 replications containing 17 birds each. The study was conducted in the rural area of Bangladesh in an intensive systems during the period from January 18 to February 28 when the temperature ranged from 9.9 to 23.7 degree C and humidity 67.4 to 80.4%. All birds were fed ad libitum a commercial layer grower mash. The feed and water was supplied twice a day. Rise husk (8 cm thick) was used as a litter on the floor. Floor space per bird was 984 cm2 .

The final body weight of Sonali and Fayoumi was 1001 g and 959 g respectively with a tendency to be higher for Sonali (P=0.08).  Sonali had higher (P>0.05) higher percentage of breast (22.8%), leg (34.1%), dark meat (37.3%) and total meat (60.1%) in comparison with Fayoumi 21.9, 32.8, 36.1 and 58% respectively for the corresponding values. It can be noted that meat was intact with bone. Mortality was also apparently lower in Sonali (7.8%) compared to Fayoumi (9.8%).

It can be concluded that crossbred Sonali is performing slightly better compared to purebred Fayoumi under an intensive system in the village conditions of Bangladesh.

Keywords: Cockerels, Fayoumi, growth, meat yield, Sonali


Introduction

In 1998-99, total meat production in Bangladesh was 656,000 tonnes, of which chicken and duck meat contributed 154,000 tonnes, which ranked second after beef. Per capita meat consumption is only 5.12 kg per year (Statistical yearbook of Bangladesh 2000), and per capita protein intake 63g per day (Statistical Bulletin Bangladesh 2003), which is markedly below recommended requirements. As protein intake is recommended to be in the range of 0.8 to 1.6 g/d per kg body weight for humans (Anonymous 1998), this requires 56 to 112g protein per day for a person of 70 kg body weight.  Thus there is a need to increase the animal protein production to fulfill the demand of the people and subsequently to make them sound and healthy for increasing their working ability.

Meat production could be increased through chicken rearing, and chicken meat is the most popular meat throughout the country. In urban or rural areas, any great festival of either religious or social origin is unimaginable without roasted chicken. People think that it is a great dishonor not to serve roast chicken at a festival. They always try to find the indigenous (Desi) cockerels for its good taste and compactness after cooking. The demand for cockerels is bigger than the supply.  However, local chickens could not service the people in an over-populated country, where 130 million people are living in an area of 147,570 square kilometers (Statistical Bulletin Bangladesh 2003).

Fayoumi (Fy) and crossbred Sonali (RIR*Fy) have been taking their place besides the indigenous hens due to their adaptability and acceptability in the climatic conditions of Bangladesh (Anisuzzaman and Wahid 1988). Crossbred progenies were superior to purebred in terms of growth rate, meat quality, body weight and feed conversion (Masic and Khalifah 1965). So it is worthwhile to observe the growth rate and meat yields of Sonali and Fayoumi cockerels to determine if these breeds could be recommended beside the native cockerels to partially fulfill the demand of the country. Keeping this view in mind the research has been designed with the objectives to compare the growth rate, meat yield characteristics and mortality between Sonali and Fayoumi cockerels.


Materials and methods

Birds, feeds and management

A total of 204 cockerels of 8 weeks of age of Fayoumi and crossbred Sonali cockerels (equal numbers of each) were divided into 6 replications each of 17 birds of each breed. The study was conducted in the rural area of Bangladesh in an intensive system during the period from January 18 to February 28, 2003.

Picture 1. External view of the experimental house

All birds were fed ad libitum commercial layer grower mash, a diet containing nutrients (manufacturer supplied information):  Metabolizable energy 11.9-12.1 (MJ/kg), moisture 11% (max), crude protein 16% (min), crude fiber 5.0% (max), crude fat 4.5% (min), crude ash 6.0% (max), lysine 0.9% (min), methionine 0.3% (min), calcium 1.2% (min) and available phosphorous 0.45% (min). The feed and water was supplied twice a day. A vitamin mineral premix was supplemented with water twice a week. Supplied feed and residuals were recorded daily. The body weight of each bird was recorded weekly. Rice husk (8 cm thick) was used as a litter on a floor, made of bamboo, elevated 45 cm from the ground. Floor space per bird was 984 cm2 .

Picture 2. Birds housed in different pens
Slaughtering and evisceration

At the end of the 14 weeks, thirty birds representing equal numbers of both breeds from each replication were randomly slaughtered for meat yield characteristics. Prior to slaughter, they were given only water for 12 hours to facilitate evisceration and also to know their actual live weight.  Different parameters of meat yield were recorded. Blood weight was calculated as the difference between live weight prior to slaughter and the completely bled bird. Feather and skin weight were calculated as the difference between weight after bleeding and weight after de-feathering and skinning. Bone was not separated from the breast, legs and wings meat.

Statistical analysis

The data were statistically analyzed using analysis of variance and the General Linear Model (GLM) procedure of SAS® software Version 8.2. Birds and replications were included in the model as fixed effects. Assumptions for the analysis were evaluated using residual plots and Shapiro-Wilks test for normality. All statements of significance were based on P<0.05.


Results and Discussion

Body weight and body weight gain

There was a tendency (P=0.079) for final live weight to be higher for the Sonali breed ((Table 1), the weights for both breeds being higher compared to results reported by Mostageer et al (1975), who demonstrated that body weight of males at 12 wk of age averaged 549 g for Fayoumi, and by Rizk and El-Ibiary (1960) in Egypt, who reported that the mean weight of Fayoumi chicks reared to 16 weeks of age was 734 g. It appeared (Figure 1) that the differences in live weight between the two breeds became more marked with increasing age, in favourof the Sonali.

Table 1. Comparison of body weight (g/bird) and total weight gain (g/bird) between Sonali and Fayoumi

Weeks for

Sonali

Fayoumi

P-value

body weight

Mean ±SEM

Mean ± SEM

Breed

8

458±6.1

451±6.4

0.42

9

525±8.1

507±7.8

0.10

10

592±9.2

561±11.0

0.030*

11

668±11.1

646±11.4

0.18

12

776±13.3

745±14.7

0.12

13

874±13.7

837±16.2

0.085

14

1001±14.9

959±18.0

0.079

Weight gain

 

 

 

week 9-11

209±13

196±18

0.11

week 12-14

434±12

409±23

0.34

week 9-14

542±13

508±23

0.18

SEM- Standard Error Mean, *P0.05



Figure 1: Growth curves of Sonali and Fayoumi cockerels from 8 to 14 weeks of age

Feed consumption and conversion

Feed intake tended to be higher, and feed conversion to be better, for Sonali (Tables 2 and 3) but the differences were only significant for feed intake in weeks 9 and 10.

Table 2. Feed consumption (g/d/bird) of cockerels during the experimental period

Week 

   Sonali

  Fayoumi

 

Mean ±SEM

Mean ± SEM

P-value

9

37.2±0.51

35.9±0.31

0.036*

10

46.3±0.51

44.7±0.48

0.041*

11

52.8±0.28

53.4±0.38

0.47

12

60.5±0.33

60.3±0.45

0.79

13

66.1±0.53

65.1±0.56

0.59

14

75.0±0.38

72.8±0.57

0.12

SEM- Standard Error Mean,  *P<0.05


Table 3. Feed conversion (feed intake/weight gain, g/g) and mortality of cockerels during the period of 8-14 weeks.

Variables 

     Sonali

   Fayoumi

 

Mean ±SEM

Mean ± SEM

P-value

Feed conversion

 

 

 

         week 9-11

4.65±0.28

4.96±0.34

0.29

         week 12-14

3.26±0.12

3.45±0.20

0.24

         week 9-14

4.37±0.12

4.61±0.19

0.11

Mortality, %

7.84±3.62

9.80±2.91

0.64

SEM- Standard Error Mean

Meat yield characteristics

There were higher percentages of  breast meat, leg meat and dark meat in Sonali compared with Fayoumi (Table 4), but not in the other carcass traits, except for gizzard weight which was higher in Fayoumi. The values for dressing percentage in Fayoumi (63.2%) were higher than the 54% reported by Haque et al (1999), but in the latter case the birds were lighter and younger.

Table 4. Comparison of meat yield characteristics between Sonali and Fayoumi

Variables

Sonali

Fayoumi

P-value

Mean

SEM

Mean

SEM

Breed

Live weight, g

939

16.5

922

17.4

0.29

Carcass wt, g

699

11.6

682

12.1

0.23

1Carcass wt, %

74.5

0.56

74.0

0.38

0.52

1Feather and skin, %

25.7

0.50

26.0

0.38

0.66

1Dressing yield, %‡

62.5

0.53

62.3

0.38

0.76

1Dressed wt, %†

48.7

0.72

47.0

0.42

0.08

2Gizzard wt, %

3.11b

0.13

3.64a

0.11

   0.008**

3Breast wt, %

22.8a

0.28

21.9b

0.24

0.037*

3Leg wt, %

34.1a

0.30

32.8b

0.33

0.027*

3Dark meat, %

37.3a

0.37

36.1b

0.34

0.029*

3Light meat: Dark meat

0.61

0.01

0.61

0.01

0.93

3Total meat, %

60.1a

0.48

58.0b

0.43

  0.002**

SEM- Standard Error Mean, *P<0.05, **P<0.01; Dark meat consists of leg meat (thigh and drumstick) and wing meat; Light meat is breast meat; ‡ Subtracting Blood , feather, viscera and shank †Subtracting weight of blood, feather and skin, shank, head, neck heart, liver, gizzard 1Percentage on live weight; 2+3 Percentage on carcass weight; 3 With bone

Conclusions


Acknowledgement

This field research in Bangladesh was performed for the partial fulfillment of MSc degree from The Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University, Denmark. The first author would cordially like to thank DANIDA and Danish Embassy for providing the required grants. Appreciation is extended to Network for Smallholder Poultry Development, KVL for organizing and implementing the MSc. Course. Finally thanks are extended to the PLDP project and women who hosted the experiments.


References

Anisuzzaman M and Wahid M A 1988 A study on growth rate, feed efficiency and livability of Fayoumi chicken under Bangladesh condition. M.Sc. Thesis, Dept. of Poultry Science, BAU, Mymensingh, Bangladesh.

Anonymous 1998 Food and nutrition guidelines for healthy adolescents. Ministry of health, NewZealand. Printed from, http://www.moh.govt.nz/moh.nsf/0/0697f789b648d3304c25666f0039933a/$FILE/fngha.pdf   pp.18.

Haque M E, Howlider M A R andHuque Q M E 1999 Growth performance and meat yield characteristics of native naked neck and their crosses with exotic chicken. Journal of Applied Animal Research 16:81-88.

Masic B and Khalifah M 1965 The conformation of chick of various breeds and crosses for broiler production. Animal Breeding Abstract 34(1): 114.

Mostageer A, Kamar G A R, Ezzeldin A and Obeidah A 1975 Body weight as influenced by sex and hatching time in Fayoumi and Rhode Island Red chickens. Egyptian Journal of Animal Production 15: 2, 239-248.

Rizk Y G and El-Ibiary H M 1960 Body size, feed efficiency and mortality rate in 16 weeks old Fayoumi chicks. Animal Breeding Abstract 29(2): 210.

SAS  Institute Inc.,What's a new in SAS software for version 8.2, Cary, NC.

Statistical Yearbook of Bangladesh 2000 published June, 2002, 21st edition, pp. 395, 450, 581, 592, 595.

Statistical Bulletin Bangladesh 2003 Bangladesh Bureau of statistics, July, pp. ix-x


Received 24 August 2004; Accepted 25 November 2004; Published 1 February 2005

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