Morphological characterization of indigenous chickens of Sikkim and West Bengal, India

Abstract

The study was conducted to characterize the variations in physical characters and some important feather and skin mutations observed in different populations of native chickens of West Bengal and Sikkim, India. The data encompassing eight different phenotypes such as, naked neck chicken, frizzled chicken, muffed/bearded chicken, creeper chicken, crested chicken, rumpless chicken, feathered shank chicken and fibromelanosis chicken, were collected from six districts of West Bengal and two districts of Sikkim. Seven qualitative traits such as colour of the egg shell, feather, skin, shank, comb and earlobe as well as the type of feather, and three quantitative traits such as shank length, egg weight and body weight, were assessed in a total of 2 170 fowls of both sexes. The data were analysed statistically using descriptive statistics, the differences in means were compared using Duncan's multiple range test and χ 2 was used for non-parametric characters. Each of the populations had multiple variants and mixed feather colours were seen in most of the chickens while the feather, skin and shank colours were all black in fibromelanosis chickens. The shank colour was predominantly blue, followed by yellow and white. The skin colour in most of the chickens was white. Most of the chickens had a single comb (except for the crested chicken). The highest body weight was observed in the desi chicken while the rumpless chicken weighed the least. The egg-shell colour varied between cream and light brown in all the flocks except for the fibromelanosis chicken whose egg-shell colour was tinted bluish. The highest recorded egg weight was observed in the naked neck chicken, whereas the hatchability and egg weight were the lowest for the rumpless chicken. In the recent years, it has been observed that there is a significant reduction in the population of native chickens. This may be attributed to the restocking with Rhode Island Red and synthetic Kruilor chickens following the avian influenza outbreaks in the region. Hence, immediate steps need to be taken to preserve whatever is left in the native chicken ecotypes in the region.Rangos Múltiples de Duncan, utilizando el ji cuadrado para los caracteres no paramétricos. Cada una de las poblaciones mostró múltiples variantes de color de pluma, mientras que la mayor parte de los colores de pluma, color de piel y patas fue negro en los pollos con fibromelanina. El color de las patas fue predominantemente azul, seguido de amarillo y blanco. El color de la piel en la mayor parte de las aves fue blanco, combinado, y orejillas blancas. El color de la cáscara del huevo varió entre nata y marrón en todas las poblaciones menos los que poseían fibromelanina, en los que el color de la cáscara estaba teñido de azulado. El peso registrado más alto del huevo fue observado en los pollos de cuello pelado, mientras que el peso del huevo fue más bajo para los pollos de arrugas. Se ha observado que hay una reducción significativa en la población de pollos nativos. Esto puede ser atribuido a la reposición ...

Sexual Dimorphism and Breed Characterization of Creole Hens through Biometric Canonical Discriminant Analysis across Ecuadorian Agroecological Areas

“…For birds from India [74], average values were similar to those measured in Bolívar and Chimborazo. Long tarsi have been associated with dry regions and flat topographies, as they allow birds to travel long distances in search for food, unlike birds with short tarsi, which could be attributed to the effects of natural selection [72].…”

“…Short tarsi have been identified with a greater ability to escape from predators [74], hence, they have been directly related to processes of adaptation and improvement of survival. Functionally, from a productive point of view, tall animals tend to be destined for meat production and small animals for egg production [68].…”

Biosecurity Strategies for Backyard Poultry: A Controlled Way for Safe Food Production

“…In West Bengal (India), common indigenous breeds that are maintained in backyard farming are native feathered chickens (Desi), naked neck chickens (Galakata murgi), frizzled fowls (Sojaru murgi), muffed/bearded fowl (Dariwala murgi), creeper chickens (Bete murgi), crested fowls (Khopa murgi), rumpless fowl (Bocha murgi), and feathered shank fowl (Aseel, Haringhata Black/Black Haringhata) (Figs. 14.1 and 14.2) (Banerjee, 2012;Samanta et al, 2016).…”

“…Resting of the birds on treetops at night was observed in South Pacific island countries (Ajuyah, 1999). Development of brick houses for the poultry is rarely observed (4%) in India (West Bengal) (Banerjee, 2012). During crisis periods, such as flooding the farmers keep the chickens in a cage and hang the cage inside the room as observed in Bangladesh (Sultana et al, 2012a).…”

Comparative study on morphological and morphometric features of village chicken in Sri Lanka

“…The dissimilarity in the occurrences of comb types may be attributed to differences in frequencies of alleles responsible for the comb types and interactions of different genes responsible for its expression. Banarjee (2012) and Cabarles et al (2012) showed that single comb is the most common comb type in tropical regions such as India and Philippines regions. This could be because of the fact that the presence of single comb helps to reduce 40% of body heat, hence advantages in tropical conditions (Duguma, 2006).…”