Backyard poultry in Kabylie (Algeria): from an indigenous chicken to a local poultry breed?

Abstract

SummaryBackyard poultry is considered as a powerful tool for poverty alleviation. It is further promoted as a way of empowering women in communities where there is gender bias in poultry raising. The low-input systems involved are based on local breeds that are perfectly suited to their environment. However, socio-economic processes put local genetic resources under pressure, leading to the erosion of biodiversity. The present survey addresses this issue in the case of Kabylie, a mountainous coastal region of Algeria, through a survey conducted in 90 households raising poultry, a morpho-biometric description of 315 local chickens, and a performance evaluation of both growth and egg production in experimental semi-intensive conditions. The socio-economic profile of poultry smallholders in Kabylie reveals poor education and high diversification of agricultural assets and confirms gender bias in poultry keeping. The erosion of local genetic resources in chicken is found to be severe despite their cultural importance in Kabylie. From complementary surveys among experienced poultry keepers, the major original local type is postulated to consist of three varieties with black plumage (pure black, mottled and barred). The performance evaluation raised promising results, suggesting that exploiting the local breed could pursue some degree of improvement of low-input backyard systems. Finally, a strategy for a revival of the local breed through the support of the most involved smallholders is outlined in accordance with the information collected in the survey.Keywords: biodiversity, genetic resources, Kabylie, poultry, smallholder Résumé L'élevage de volailles d'arrière-cour constitue un outil important de lutte contre la pauvreté. Il est en outre promu comme mode de renforcement de la position féminine dans une communauté, sous réserve de l'observation dans les faits du biais de genre classiquement rapporté dans le contrôle de cet élevage. Les systèmes à faible niveau d'intrant concernés sont basés sur des races locales rustiques, adaptées à leur environnement. Néanmoins, des processus socio-économiques mettent sous pression ces ressources génétiques locales, menant à une érosion de la biodiversité. La présente étude aborde cette problématique dans le cas de la Kabylie, région côtière montagneuse de l'Algérie, au travers d'une enquête auprès de 90 ménages élevant des poules, d'un relevé morpho-biométrique réalisé sur 315 sujets locaux ainsi qu'une évaluation des performances de ponte et de croissance dans des conditions semi-intensives expérimentales. Le profil socio-économique des petits éleveurs de poules en Kabylie révèle un faible niveau de formation, une grande diversification de l'outil agricole et confirme le biais de genre mentionné plus haut. Une érosion génétique sévère a été trouvée, en dépit de l'importance culturelle de la poule en Kabylie. Une enquête complémentaire auprès d'éleveurs expérimentés indique que trois variétés de plumages noirs (noir pur, caillouté, barré) sont considérées comme constituant les ...

Phenotypic characterization of the indigenous chickens <i>(Gallus gallus)</i> in the northwest of Algeria

“…The predominant comb colour was dark red (77.8 %), which is consistent with results obtained by Moula et al (2012) on indigenous chickens in Kabylie. Males had significantly darker combs than females.…”

“…The average live weight of the sampled chickens was 1716 ± 17.53 g for males and 1451 ± 10.41 g for females, which is higher than the findings of Moula et al (2012) (males = 1427 ± 18 g; females = 1144 ± 18 g) for Kabylie chickens from Algeria and Getu et al (2014) (males = 1630 ± 0.03 g; females = 1370 ± 0.02 g) for chickens from north Gondar zone in Ethiopia. Higher live weights were reported from Fulani ecotype chickens in Nigeria (males = 2400 ± 0.14 g; females = 1500 ± 0.14 g) (Jesuyon and Salako, 2013) and for Southern Highlands chickens of Tanzania (males = 2095 ± 29.9 g; females = 1525 ± 15.9 g) (Guni et al, 2013).…”

“…Up to now, the body weight (BW) prediction from some morphological traits has not been reported in Algerian indigenous chickens. In Algeria, few studies have concerned the characterization and identification of local populations of chickens (Moula et al, 2009(Moula et al, , 2012Halbouche et al, 2009;Mahammi et al, 2014Mahammi et al, , 2016. The present study therefore sought first to characterize the local chickens of the northwest of Algeria based on some qualitative and quantitative traits and second to use these criteria to estimate body weight through multiple linear regression.…”

Morpho-Biometric Evaluation of the Genetic Diversity of Local Chicken Ecotypes in Four Regions (Centre-East, Sahel, Centre-North and South-West) of Burkina Faso

“…Similarly, the other parameters measured confirmed the significant sexual dimorphism across the four regions. The average body weight of local roosters and hens of the Konde ecotype were higher than those of the local chicken as reported by Pinde et al 10 in the Sudanian zone (males = 1640±20 g, females = 1115±10 g), by Fotsa et al 14 in Cameroon (males = 1665±403 g, females = 1259±16 g), by Moula et al 15 in the Kabylie region in Algeria (males = 1427±18 g, females = 1144±18 g), by Dahloum et al 16 in north-eastern Algeria (males = 1716±17.53 g, females = 1451± 10.41 g) and by Getu et al 17 in Ethiopia (males = 1630± 300 g, females = 1370± 200 g). However, they were lower than those reported for Konde chickens by Ouandaogo cited by Keambou et al, 9 in Burkina Faso (males = 2500; females = 1800g), for local chickens by Jesuyon and Salako 18 in Nigeria (males = 2400±140 g, females = 1500±140 g) and by Guni et al 19 in Tanzania (Males = 2095±29.9 g, females = 1525 ± 15.9 g).…”

Phenotypic Characterization of Indigenous Free Range Chickens in Kalomo, Zambia

“…Indigenous chickens have been reported to comprise not less than 80% and 65% of the total poultry population in Africa and Zambia, respectively and this has a significant contribution to food security at household level (Dahloum et al, 2016;MFL, 2019). In southern Africa, these birds are raised by resource restricted societies (Mtileni et al, 2012).…”