Considering the inherent attributes of cocoyam (Xanthosoma sagittifolium), its appropriate utilization for chicken diets may enhance performance of starter broilers. The study was therefore, carried out to determine the growth performance of starter broilers fed processed cocoyam tuber meal as energy source in place of maize. Xanthosoma cocoyam corms were harvested, cleaned of soil and chopped into bits of about 0.2 cm. The chopped tannia was soaked in water in a large vat for 24 hours to reduce the ant nutrients and later on separated from the water and dried with microwave oven. The dried cocoyam was milled and then used. The proximate chemical composition showed that soaked cocoyam tuber meal contained 8.05% moisture, 91.95% dry matter, 10.08% ash, 2.01% crude protein, 1.60% ether extract, 3.80% crude fibre, 74.46% NFE and 3158.92Kcal/kg DM metabolizable energy. In the starter broiler experiment, five experimental diets were formulated such that, diet 1 (control) contained yellow maize as the main energy source, while soaked CTM was used to replace maize at levels of 15%, 20%, 25% and 30% respectively in the control diet. Each starter diet was fed to a group of 30 broiler chicks for 4 weeks using completely randomized design. Each treatment was further grouped into 3 replicates of 10 birds each. The broiler chicks were kept in deep litter and given feed and water ad libitum. Parameters measured included initial body weight, final body weight, feed intake, feed conversion ratio and cost of production. In the starter feeding trial, the group on 30% soaked CTM (30% SCYM) compared favorably with the control group (P<0.05) and recorded the highest body weight gain. It appeared that, the starter broilers could tolerate high levels of soaked CTM in their diets. Cost of production (cost of feed x feed conversion ratio) was lowest for diet 5 (30% SCYM) N248.15 as against N281.86 for control diet in the starter feeding trial. CTM meal can be used to replace maize at 30% in the diets of starter broilers without affecting weight gain, feed intake and feed conversion ratio as indicated in the study.
Correlation coefficients are useful tool in animal breeding as a means of predicting potential response. In this study, body weight (BW) and linear body traits records of Arbor Acre and Cobb broiler strains obtained at 3 – 8 weeks were used to compare the growth performance of the strains as well as estimate the phenotypic correlations (rp ) among BW and the linear body traits. Repeatability (R) values of BW and the linear body traits were estimated at weeks 3, 5 and 7. Atotal of 200 day old chicks, 100 each of Arbor Acre and Cobb were used for the study. The linear body traits considered were body length (BL), shank length (SL), chest circumference (CC), keel length (KL), wing length (WL) and drum stick length (DSL). Significant differences (P<0.05) were observed between the strains for BW and the linear body traits at the various weeks. BW differed significantly at weeks 5, 6 and 7, which ranged from 1036.67 ± 36.93 – 1736.67 ± 46.41 for Arbor Acre and 930.00 ± 20.59 – 1563.33 ± 33.26 for Cobb. Arbor Acre showed significant (P<0.05) superiority to Cobb in their linear body traits in most of the weeks. BW had high significant (P<0.05; P<0.01) positive rp with the linear body traits, which ranged from 0.535 (KL) – 0.842 (BL) for Arbor Acre and 0.523 (SL) – 0.834 (BL) for Cobb. The rp among the linear body traits in both Arbor Acre and Cobb were positive but ranged from moderate to high. The R estimate of BW of Arbor Acre and Cobb were all very highly repeatable at weeks 3, 5 and 7 ranging from 0.90 – 0.99. R values for the linear body traits ranged majorly from moderate {(0.31 – 0.67 and 0.37 – 0.69)}to high {(0.78 – 0.97) and 0.97) and (0.71 – 0.92)} for Arbor Acre and Cobb, respectively across the weeks evaluated. The result of this study indicates that Arbor Acre could be a strain of choice for rearing in our study area owing to its superiority over Cobb in terms of growth performance. All the linear body traits measure were good estimators of BW in both strains as well as each other, implying that any phenotypic selection on one trait will lead to improvement of others. The high repeatability estimates of body weight and some of the linear traits indicate that fewer records would be required to adequately characterize the inherent growing ability of the birds at the various stages of growth.
The study was conducted to investigate the effect of genotype on the laying performance of Nigerian local chicken. The experiment was carried out using 99 local chicken of the three genotypes, comprising of 90 hens and 9 cocks (33 frizzle feather, 33 naked-neck feather and 33 normal feathered). Eggs were collected from the different genotypes for 8 weeks. The laying performance traits were egg number, hen-housed (%) and hen-day (%) egg production. Data collected were subjected to ANOVA in a completely randomised design. The hen-day egg production showed significant differences (P<0.05) in all the weeks. Naked-neck genotype performed better in terms of hen-day egg production than the other two genotypes and had highest values in week 1 (27.14±0.01), week 5 (27.60±0.09), week 7 (34.53±1.13) andweek 8 (16.30±0.03). Therewere significant differences (P<0.05) in all the weeks for hen-housed egg production and naked-neck also performed better than the frizzled and normal feather apart from week 2, 3 and 6. The naked-neck genotype had highest mean values in week 1, 4, 5, 7 and 8 with 27.18±0.06, 25.70±0.02, 19.33±0.67, 24.08±0.22 and 11.39±0.03 respectively for hen-housed egg production. The naked-neck had significantly (P<0.05) higher values for egg number when compared with frizzle and normal feathered genotypes. The values ranged between 5.67±0.67 to 2.00±0.10 (naked-neck), 6.33±0.33 to 2.67±0.67 (frizzle) and 3.33±0.33 to 1.33±0.33 (normal). It is therefore, reasonable to incorporate the naked-neck and frizzled feather genotypes of local chicken in producing locally-adapted commercial eggs
Semen quality of cocks is of utmost importance in reproduction. Breeding method, breed, strain and genetic constitution are the major components of the genetic factors capable of affecting the semen quality of cocks. This research seeks to determine the effect of genotype on the semen quality traits of 272 F crossbred cocks produced at day-old by main and 1 reciprocal crossbreeding of 69 Isa Brown and local frizzle feathered, naked neck and normal feathered chickens. The genotypes of the cocks were Isa Brow x frizzle feathered main cross (IBxF), Isa Brown x naked neck main cross (IBxNa), Isa Brown x normal feathered main cross (IBxN), frizzle feathered x Isa Brown reciprocal cross (FxIB), naked neck x Isa Brown reciprocal cross (NaxIB) and normal feathered x Isa Brown reciprocal cross (NxIB). At 36-40 weeks of age, semen was extracted from the cocks by abdominal massage technique and used to evaluate semen volume (SV), sperm motility (SM), sperm concentration (SC) and live sperm (LS) at weekly intervals. Data obtained from the evaluation were subjected to analysisof variance and tested at 5% level of probability. Genotypes differed significantly (P <0.05) in SC at 37-40 weeks and in SM and LS at all ages. There was no significant difference (P>0.05) in SV. Regardless of genotype and age, the mean SV, SM, SC and LS ranged from 0.31±0.02 to 0.24±0.01ml, 71.84±1.33 to 58.75±2.16 %, 3.22±0.02 to2.92±0.02 x109/ml and 71.91±1.37 %, respectively. The NxIB and IBxNa genotypes produced largest numericalsemen volume at 37 and 39 weeks of age respectively. Whereas SC and LS were significantly highest for IBxF and IBxN respectively at week 37, SM was so for IBxN at all ages. Further, the LS of IBxN genotype was significantly highest at 36-38 and 40 weeks of age. The exotic Isa Brown and normal feathered main cross cocks exhibited the best semen quality traits among all genotypes studied and should be selected for improvement of the reproductive characteristics of cocks.
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