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ThesisItem Open Access ANALYSIS OF INDIGENOUS CHICKEN FARMING SYSTEM IN SELECTED DISTRICTS OF BRAHMAPUTRA VALLEY OF ASSAM(College of Veterinary Science, Assam Agricultural University, Khanapara, Guwahati, 2019-07) ISLAM, RAFIQUL; Kalita, NiranjanA study was conducted in all agro-climatic zones of Brahmaputra Valley of Assam to know socio-economic status of indigenous chicken farmers, demographic distribution and morphological characters of indigenous chicken. Different husbandry practices in indigenous chicken, productive and reproductive performances, diseases and mortality pattern, health coverage programme, economics and marketing of indigenous chicken, constraints faced by the chicken farmers, physical and chemical analyses of crop ingesta to know the nutritional status of scavenged chicken and carcass traits were also studied. One district from each zone was selected on the basis highest indigenous chicken population. Again from each district, 10 villages were randomly selected. Further, 5 numbers of farmers were selected randomly from each district, thus a total of 50 farmers were selected from each district. In this way altogether 200 numbers of farmers were selected for the whole study. Farmers were selected on the basis of experience and who kept at least 25-30 numbers of indigenous chicken. The data were collected in a pre-structured interview containing all relevant information pertaining to the study by personal interview method. The data were collected during August, 2017 to July, 2018 Majority (42%) of the respondents belonged to middle age group and most of them (83%) were women. Educational background was poor as two-fifth (42.50%) of them had only up to primary level of formal education. Occupationally there were mostly dependent on agriculture and animal husbandry. Some (21.50%) of them were landless and more than half of the respondents had only up to 5 bighas of land. More than fifty per cent of them were economically weaker with a annual income of Rs.1,00,000/-. Majority (64.50%) was married and three-fifth (59.50%) of them were Hindus, followed by Muslims (37.00%). Majority (59.00%) of them belonged to nuclear family. Mostly (67.50%) women were the owner of the flock and most (62.50%) of them had more than 10 years of experience in chicken farming. Most (94.68) of the indigenous chicken were normal feathered followed by naked neck (5.32%). Mostly males had red coloured plumage, while females were mostly brown mixed colored. Majority of the chicken had single comb. All the birds had red coloured comb. Majority of the chicken had black coloured shank. The overall mean flock size recorded as 29.79±0.28 and each flock constituted mostly by chicks (65.01%), followed by growers (18.78%) and adults (16.20%) in the study areas. Majority (56.50%) of the farmers constructed coop for night sheltering and most (63.00%) of the coops were located outside the dwelling house. The mean dimension and floor space of the coop was 1.73 x 1.18 x 1.01 cubic meters and 2.04 square meters. The coop was constructed by locally available cheap materials. In most of the cases floors (77.50%) and walls (72.50%) were made of bamboo or wooden slated, while 87.50% of the roofs were made of G.I. sheet. The total cost of construction of coop ranged from Rs. 350/- to Rs. 2,250/- with overall mean of Rs. 850/-, which could accommodate up to 30 numbers of chickens. Mostly (74.50%) sand was used as bedding material and 39% of them used bamboo or wooden basket as laying nest. Majority (34.50%) of the respondents cleaned coop weekly once. All the farmers under study revealed that indigenous chicken were provided with supplemental feed in addition to scavenged feed. Majority (65.50%) of the farmers offered grains followed by crop by-products (18.50%) and concentrate feed (16.00%). Most (70.50%) of them used home-mixed grains, while 57% of the respondents offered supplemental feed twice a day. The amount of supplemental feed ranged from 450 to 1000 g daily with an average of 750 g daily for 25 to 30 numbers of chickens. Majority (59.50%) of the farmers provided feed on the ground by throwing and the feed was provided together irrespective of sex and age in most (71.50%) of the cases. About one-third (32.00%) of them provided feed during monsoon season. Limited access for scavenging was the main problems of indigenous chicken feeding as reported by majority (50.50%) of the respondents. More than 90% of the respondents did not provide water troughs to their birds. Majority (86.50%) of the respondents used home produced eggs for incubation. All of them practiced natural incubation and most of them used broody hen (96.50%) for incubation. Hatching was done twice in a year by majority (87%) of the respondents. The male-female ratio was erratic and it varied from 1:5 to 1: 20 with an average of 1:8.5. The mean number of eggs set per broody bird varied from 13.06±0.26 to 13.77±0.25 with an overall mean of 13.59±0.23. Majority (64%) of the farmers retained their cock up to 2 years of age for breeding. More than two-third of the respondents did not practice selection of hatching eggs, while rest (32%) practiced selection on the basis of soundness of shell (68.5). Post-monsoon season was preferred by most (46.5%) of the farmers. Majority (63.5%) of the farmers did not record the duration period for hatching eggs. Storing eggs in the nest before incubation was practiced by majority (85.5%) of the farmers. Most (61.5%) of the respondents culled their surplus chicken stock for sale. Majority (58%) of the respondents culled surplus males and females at the age of 6 to7 months. The overall mean body weights recorded were 32.06±0.26, 752.50±3.99 and 1082.48±6.27 g respectively at 1st week, male grower at 5 months and adult at 10 months of age. The corresponding values for female grower and adults were 637.15±2.87 and 899.75±4.09 g respectively. There was no significant (P≤0.05) difference in body weights among different districts. The overall mean age at first egg was 6.45±0.06 months. The overall mean number of laying cycle per hen per year was found to be 3.30±0.04. The overall mean number of eggs laid in a laying cycle and overall mean annual egg production per hen were found to be 15.91±0.17 and 51.40±0.91 respectively. The overall mean weight was 32.57±0.19 g. The mean fertility and hatchability (On TES) were recorded as 89.73±0.44 and 83.45±1.04 respectively. There was no significant (P≤0.05) difference in fertility and hatchability among different districts. Majority (54.5%) of the farmers did not treat their sick birds, while some (18%) of them consulted with veterinarians for their ailing birds. Most (94.5%) of the farmers did not practice any vaccination programme. None of the farmers practiced deworming in the study areas. Greenish diarrhoea was noticed by most of the farmers as symptoms in any disease outbreak. Ranikhet disease was the most important disease that resulted in highest mortality in a flock as reported by majority (84.5%) of the farmers under study. The overall mean per cent mortality in indigenous chicken recorded as 18.97±0.28, 10.00±0.46 and 5.38±0.17 respectively during 0 to 9, 10 to 20 and above 20 weeks of age in the study areas. There was a significant (P≤0.05) difference in mortality per cent at above 20 weeks of age between districts. The total cost of production per bird up to 72 weeks of age was higher in Sivasagar (Rs. 395.62) than other district. However, the net income and B:C ratio were higher in Sonitpur district. The overall mean egg price was Rs. 8.39±0.16 and live chicken was Rs. 340.90±3.25. The market price of live chicken significantly (P≤0.05) varied from district to district. Four numbers of marketing channels each were identified for live chicken and egg. Lack of veterinary services was the major problem and was ranked first with mean score of 67.91 among all the constraints, followed by disease outbreak (67.59), predator (62.79), damaging crops and vegetable (61.70), external parasites (44.83), improper housing (43.64), inferior productivity of local chicken, unorganized marketing and shortage of feed. The overall mean per cent grains and by-product contents of both male and female crop ingesta were significantly (P≤0.05) higher during post-monsoon season than other seasons. Further, the values recorded during winter season (43.29±0.81%) were significantly (P≤0.05) higher than pre-monsoon and monsoon seasons. There was no difference in per cent grains and by-product contents of both male and female crop ingesta between districts. The overall mean per cent kitchen wastes contents of male crop ingesta were significantly (P≤0.05) higher during pre-monsoon (48.39±1.14%) than other seasons. However the values were comparable between monsoon (41.37±1.23) and winter (40.91±1.21%) seasons. The male crop ingesta contained significantly (P≤0.05) higher per cent kitchen wastes in Dhubri (42.80±1.82%) than Nagaon and Sonitpur districts. Similarly the mean per cent kitchen wastes contents of female crop ingesta were significantly (P≤0.05) higher during pre-monsoon (41.02±1.21%) and monsoon (42.07±1.94%) than post-monsoon and winter seasons. The female crop ingesta contained significantly (P≤0.05) higher kitchen wastes contents in Sivasagar than Nagaon and Sonitpur districts. The overall mean per cent green forage contents of male and female crop ingesta were significantly (P≤0.05) higher during monsoon than other seasons. Further, per cent green forage contents were significantly (P≤0.05) higher in Sonitpur and Nagaon districts in the case of male and female respectively. The overall mean insects and worms contents of male and female crop ingesta were significantly (P≤0.05) higher during monsoon than other seasons. There was no significant (P≤0.05) difference in insects and worms contents of male crop ingesta between districts; however, significantly (P≤0.05) higher insect and worm contents were found in Sivasagar (3.11±0.38%) district than other district in female crop ingesta. The overall mean per cent indigestible miscellaneous particles present in male crop ingesta were significantly (P≤0.05) higher monsoon (14.19±0.55%) than other seasons. The corresponding values were also significantly higher in Nagaon and Sivasagar districts for male and female crop ingesta respectively. The crop ingesta of male and female chicken constituted significantly (P≤0.05) higher per cent of DM during monsoon (51.41±0.52%) and post-monsoon (51.91±0.45%) seasons respectively. There was no significant difference of dry matter contents of crop ingesta between pre-monsoon and winter season in male chicken, however dry matter content was significantly higher during postmonsoon than pre-monsoon and winter seasons. The crude protein content (on DM basis) was significantly higher during post-monsoon and winter seasons than other seasons in males. The crude protein content was significantly (P≤0.05) higher in Dhubri and Sonitpur than Sivasagar district. In females, there was no significant difference in crude protein contents of crop ingesta among different seasons. However, crude protein content in Dhubri was significantly (P≤0.05) higher than other districts in males (10.86±0.30%) and females (10.83±0.30%) respectively. The ether extract content (on DM basis) of male crop ingesta was significantly (P≤0.05) higher during winter season than any other seasons. The corresponding value was significantly (P≤0.05) higher in Dhubri than Sivasagar, however it was comparable with Nagaon and Sonitpur districts. There was no significant difference in ether extract content of female crop ingesta between districts and between seasons. The crude fiber content (on DM basis) of male crop ingesta was significantly (P≤0.05) higher during winter than monsoon and post-monsoon, however it was comparable with pre-monsoon season. There was no significant difference in crude fiber contents of male crop ingesta between districts. However, female crop ingesta constituted significantly (P≤0.05) higher crude fiber contents during pre-monsoon and post-monsoon than monsoon and winter. In Sonitpur district, female crop ingesta contained significantly (P≤0.05) lower crude fiber contents than other districts. The total ash content (on DM basis) of male crop ingesta was significantly (P≤0.05) higher during pre-monsoon than any other seasons. Significantly (P≤0.05) lower content of total ash was found in Nagaon than any other districts. In females, the crop ingesta contained significantly (P≤0.05) lower total ash during monsoon than post-monsoon and winter; however the value was comparable with pre-monsoon season. There was no significance difference in total ash content of female crop ingesta between districts. The calcium content (on DM basis) of male crop ingesta was significantly (P≤0.05) higher during pre-monsoon than monsoon and post-monsoon; however the values were comparable with winter season. The calcium content of male and female crop ingesta was significantly (P≤0.05) higher in Dhubri than any other districts. In winter season, the female crop ingesta contained significantly higher calcium than any other seasons. The total phosphorous content of male and female crop ingesta did not differ significantly between seasons and districts. The pre-slaughter live weight (g), dressed yield (%) and thigh yield (%) of both males and females did not differ significantly (P≤0.05) either between districts or between seasons. Similarly, wings yield (%), drumsticks yield (%), breast yield (%) and back yield (%) of male did not differ significantly between districts and seasons. The mean per cent giblet yield in both male (6.15±0.04%) and female (6.14±0.05%) were significantly (P≤0.05) higher during monsoon than other seasons but the values were comparable with pre-monsoon season. The overall mean per cent giblet yield was significantly (P≤0.05) higher in Sivasagar than other districts in both males and females. The overall mean per cent head yield was significantly (P≤0.05) higher during premonsoon than other seasons; however it was comparable with post-monsoon season.
