Surveys using both purposive and random sampling methods was carried out in four zones of north-west Ethiopia to describe the village-based poultry production systems and constraints in order to design future improvement and conservation strategies. The majority of the respondents were female (74.16%). This indicated that most of the time the women, whether in male-headed or female-headed households, are responsible for chicken rearing while the men are responsible for crop cultivation and other off-farm activities. About 99% of the respondents gave supplementary feeds to their chickens. Almost all farmers provided night shelter for their chickens, in part of the kitchen (1.36%), in the main house (39.07%), in hand-woven baskets (7.29%), in bamboo cages (1.51%) or in a separate shed purpose-made for chickens (50.77%). The major causes of death of chickens during the study were seasonal outbreaks of Newcastle disease (locally known as fengele) and predation. It is important to collect and conserve local poultry breeds before they are fully replaced by the so-called improved breeds. As most of the poultry production is managed by women, focusing on training and education of women will enable not only the improvement of poultry production but also family planning and the overall living standards of the family and the community.

Seven indigenous chicken populations were identified and characterized from four administrative zones in northwest Ethiopia. A total of three hundred chickens were characterized under field conditions for qualitative and quantitative traits following standard chicken descriptors. Large phenotypic variability among chicken populations was observed for plumage color. About 25.49, 22.3, and 16.4 % of the chickens have white, grayish and red plumage colors, respectively. The rest showed a considerable heterogeneity like black, multicolor, black with white tips, red brownish and white with red striped plumage colors. The following characteristics were also displayed: plain head shape (51.18%), yellow shank color (64.42%) and pea comb (50.72%). About 97.52% of the chickens did not have feathers on their legs. Variations were also observed on quantitative characters such as shank length, egg size and body weight and other reproductive traits characterized on intensive management system.

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Estimates of co(variance) components were obtained for weights at birth, weaning and 6, 9 and 12 months of age in Muzaffarnagari sheep maintained at the Central Institute for Research on Goats, Makhdoom, Mathura, India, over a period of 28 years (1976 to 2003). Records of 5530 lambs out of 169 rams and 1631 ewes were used for the study. Analyses were carried out by restricted maximum likelihood (REML), fitting six animal models, including various combinations of maternal effects. Heritability estimates for weight at birth, weaning and 6, 9 and 12 months of age were 0·09, 0·21, 0·06, 0·10 and 0·14, respectively. Maternal heritability of body weight declined from 0·07 at birth to 0·02 at weaning. The maternal permanent environmental component contributed 10 to 11% to the total variance for all traits except weight at 12 months. A significant large negative genetic correlation was observed between direct and maternal genetic effects on weaning weight, suggesting the presence of antagonistic environmental, as well as perhaps genetic, effects in daughter and dam. Results suggest that maternal additive effects were only important in early stages of growth, whereas a permanent environmental maternal effect existed at all ages up to 9 months, probably as a carryover effect of maternal influences present at weaning. Modest rates of genetic progress appear possible for all weights, but the presence of an antagonism between direct and maternal effects on weaning weight would complicate attempts to improve both by selection.

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