Indigenous/native breeds of chickens are playing an important role in rural economies in most of the developing and underdeveloped countries. They play a major role for the rural poor and marginalised section of the people with respect to their subsidiary income and also provide them with nutritious chicken egg and meat for their own consumption. Performance of native fowl can be improved by change in husbandry, feeding, and better health cover. However, genetic improvement may be made either through selection and crossbreeding or by utilisation of both selection and crossbreeding. Improvement through selection may be time consuming but the improvement will be permanent. Through crossbreeding improvement may be faster but research has to aim for the production of native-type birds with higher production potential. In the present review efforts have been made to present the importance of native fowl to rural economy and their improvement for higher production performance.

The present study was conducted to characterize 2 important native chicken breeds from India and compare them on growth, production, egg and semen quality, and welfare traits. The Aseel breed showed (P < 0.001) higher BW at different ages; higher shank, radius, and toe lengths at 40 wk of age; and greater egg weights at 28, 32, and 40 wk of age than did the Kadaknath breed. The Kadaknath breed reached sexual maturity at an early age, and it had higher 40-wk egg production (P < 0.001). Higher egg specific gravity (P < 0.05) and higher albumen (P < 0.001) and shell (P < 0.009) percentages in the Kadaknath were observed, whereas the Aseel breed had a higher yolk index (P < 0.004), higher yolk percentage (P < 0.001), and higher yolk-to-albumen ratio (P < 0.001). Concentration of sperm (P < 0.01), live sperm counts (P < 0.05), and semen appearance scores (P < 0.05) were higher in the Aseel breed than in the Kadaknath breed. The Aseel breed showed a greater incidence of feather-pecking behavior under floor rearing, and this was negligible or mild in the Kadaknath breed. Broodiness under cage rearing was observed (8.42%) in the Aseel breed. With regard to welfare traits, male Aseel birds had a significantly shorter (P < 0.05) duration of tonic immobility (TI) than did male Kadaknath birds. Furthermore, male Aseel birds had a shorter (P < 0.001) duration of TI than did female Aseel birds, whereas female Aseel birds had a longer (P < 0.05) duration of TI than did female and male Kadaknath birds. From this study, it was concluded that the breeds differed on various growth, production, egg and semen quality, and behavioral traits, but not on welfare traits, although female Aseel birds exhibited a greater fear response.

Objective of the work was to develop a three-way cross for egg-type backyard chicken using male and female lines developed from exotic chickens. To improve the egg production further and to get colour plumage pattern, the two-way cross PD1 X IWI males were crossed with PD3 females to produce threeway cross (PD1 X IWI X PD3). The crossbred was evaluated for different traits upto 72 weeks of age. Sexual dimorphisms were evident from two weeks onwards for body weights and shank length differ significantly (P < .05) between male and female at 8, 12 and 16 weeks of age. Male were reared upto 16 weeks of age, and at 16 weeks, body weight of male and female were 1670 and 1096 g, respectively. Carcass quality measured at 16 week of age recorded 66.12% eviscerated carcass yield, 4.84% giblet and 0.30% abdominal fat. Egg production performance recorded from 17 to 72 weeks of age at 4 weeks interval showed significant (P < .05) difference between different periods, and peak egg production was recorded during 29-32 weeks. At 69-72 weeks period, the egg production per bird was 14.78 eggs. Egg production upto 40, 52, 64 and 72 weeks of age were 91.71, 105.84, 204.88 and 233.28 eggs, respectively. Age and weight at sexual maturity were 163.14 days and 1702 g, respectively. Egg weight recorded at 4 weeks interval starting from 20 weeks of age showed linear increase upto 56 weeks of age with significant differences at different ages. The results indicate that the cross may be of use for egg-type poultry in the backyard. However, before large-scale propagation, the cross has to be evaluated in the field. ARTICLE HISTORY

The juvenile growth and carcass traits were evaluated in a 4 × 4 full diallel crossing involving four colored broiler chicken lines viz., Naked neck (NN), Dwarf, Punjab Broiler-1 (PB-1), and Punjab Broiler-2 to study the performance and crossbreeding parameters. The data on 2,280 chicks were analyzed using least squares techniques to assess the effect of genetic group, and the significant traits were further analyzed for crossbreeding parameters. Genetic group had significant influence on the body weights and carcass traits. The cross of PB-1 × NN recorded significantly (p ≤ 0.05) higher body weight at 6 weeks of age. The data revealed that general combining ability (GCA), specific combining ability (SCA), maternal ability (MA), sex-linked effect (SE), and purebred effects significantly influenced the growth and carcass traits in the broiler crosses. The crossbred PB-1 × NN showed positive heterosis for growth as well as carcass traits. The results suggest that GCA, SCA, SE, and MA are important in the inheritance of the body weights and carcass traits indicating the presence of both additive and nonadditive genetic variation along with reciprocal effects. Therefore, pure line selection along with development of specialized sire and dam lines followed by crossing will improve the growth performance and benefit the poultry farmers. It is concluded that PB-1 as a male line and NN as a female line performed significantly higher, therefore, may be used for improving the performance of colored broilers.

To evaluate different crosses and purebreds ducks in respect to various economic traits and to estimate different crossbreeding genetic parameters, a 3 x 3 complete diallel cross involving indigenous duck (DD), Khaki Campbell (KK) and White Pekin (WW) were used to produce three purebreds (DD, KK, WW) three crossbreds (DK, DW, KW) and three reciprocals (KD, WD, WK). A total of 609 ducklings produced were reared on deep litter and the females (316 in number) were evaluated for growing and laying period body weight along with the production performance traits. Different crossbreeding genetic parameters were estimated for different traits. All the traits in respect to body weight gain during growing and laying period and different production traits including laying house mortality rate showed significant (p

The present study was conducted to evaluate two Indian native chicken breeds, namely, Aseel and Kadaknath for fertility, hatchability, genetic parameters of juvenile growth traits, and semen quality traits at the onset of sexual maturity. The fertility was similar in Aseel (86.96%) and Kadaknath (85.15%); however, a relatively higher hatchability was observed in Kadaknath (77.94%) than Aseel (70.74%). Heritability estimates of body weights at 4 weeks of age were almost similar in Aseel (0.37) and Kadaknath (0.39), while the estimate of body weight at 6 weeks of age was higher in Aseel (0.42) than Kadaknath (0.31). The heritability estimate of shank length at 6 weeks of age was lower in Aseel (0.16) compared to Kadaknath (0.35). The age at first egg in the flock was comparable in Aseel (148 days) and Kadaknath (150 days). Aseel breed with significantly (P ≤ 0.001) higher body weight, absolute and relative testes weights had significantly higher semen volume (P ≤ 0.05) and sperm motility (P ≤ 0.01) but had lower seminal plasma cholesterol level (P ≤ 0.05) as compared to Kadaknath. It can be concluded that there is a scope for genetic improvement of these two native breeds for juvenile growth traits since heritability estimates of these traits were relatively high.

A study was conducted to evaluate the effect of feeding different metabolizable energy (ME) and crude protein (CP) levels on performance of Aseel chicken during 0 to 8 weeks of age (Juvenile phase). At 1 day old, 432 chicks were randomly distributed into nine groups. Each group had 48 chicks distributed into eight replicates with six birds in each. Maize-soybean meal-based diets with three ME levels (2,400, 2,600 and 2,800 kcal/kg) and three CP levels (16%, 18% and 20%) were fed to birds in a 3 × 3 factorial design. Different ME levels had significant effect on body weight gain (BWG), feed intake and feed conversion ratio (FCR). Birds fed diet with 2,400 kcal/kg ME had significantly lower BWG (P < 0.004), lower shank length (P < 0.0007), higher feed intake (P < 0.0001) and poor FCR (P < 0.0001) than those fed diet with either 2,600 or 2,800 kcal/kg ME. Energy efficiency ratio was not influenced by ME, CP or their interaction. However, protein efficiency ratio was significantly higher at higher ME levels and lower at higher CP levels. There was significant effect of ME, CP and their interaction on serum protein and cholesterol levels. However, they made no significant effect on antibody titre against New Castle disease vaccine. The study concluded that provision of 2,600 kcal/kg ME and 16% CP would be ideal for optimum growth of Aseel birds during juvenile phase. However, to obtain better FCR, feeding Aseel birds with diet having 2,800 kcal/kg ME and 16% CP would be ideal.

Coastal and rural parts of Odisha are home to indigenous ducks, which are mostly reared for meat and egg production. Cross performance of the indigenous duck with exotic breeds, along with the suitability of crossbreeds for commercial rearing in the region are highlighted in this review paper. The crossbreeds perform comparatively better for most economic traits compared to the indigenous duck. The cross of the indigenous duck (male) with the Khaki Campbell (female) perform better in respect to different growth and production traits. Indigenous ducks in combination with White Pekin perform better in respect to juvenile growth, carcass quality and egg production. Most of the economic traits have showed desirable heterosis in crossbreds. The performance of indigenous ducks kept under free range conditions, molecular characteristics, mortality pattern and disease incidence, nutritional, and haematological studies are included in this review.