Intermixing of Commercial Pure Breed Chickens with Indigenous (Sakini) Breed of Nepal

Abstract

The intermixing of pure breeds of commercial chickens with Nepalese indigenous flock of chickens has not been explored yet genetically. The study aims to investigate the status of interbreeding of Nepalese indigenous chickens with exotic breeds. Thirty three samples of indigenous chicken, Sakini, from three different ecological regions, Terai, mid-hill and high hill, were taken for the study. The 522 bp hyper-variable region of D loop mtDNA of each sampled population was PCR amplified and sequenced. The Neighbor joining tree revealed that most of Nepalese Sakini and commercial chickens such as New Hampshire, Rhode Island Red, White Leghorn, White Plymouth Rock and Barred Plymouth Rock lied in same clade. Our study provides first direct evidence that the Sakini was already bred with commercial breeds for the sake of enhancing production performance and also alarms the government to introduce proper strategies and policies to avoid such genetic erosion.

Sustainable Livestock Production in Nepal: A Focus on Animal Nutrition Strategies

“…Poultry production in Nepal consists of commercial broiler and layer farms, as well as village or backyard poultry production, where birds are raised in a small number in the scavenging or backyard system, while exploiting all sorts of inputs from the farmhouse itself [32]. Poultry farming in Nepal involves both commercial and native stocks, and their production shows an increasing trend [33]. A significant portion of the total poultry population consists of native breeds.…”

“…A significant portion of the total poultry population consists of native breeds. Some of the documented indigenous chicken breeds of Nepal are Sakini (normal feather), Ghatikhuile (naked neck), and Pwakhulte (frizzled feather) [33]. Although the poultry sub-sector includes chickens, ducks, pigeons, and other kinds of birds kept under various production systems, the chicken population dominates by far [32].…”