Productive Performance and Egg and Meat Quality of Two Indigenous Poultry Breeds in Vietnam, Ho and Dong Tao, Fed on Commercial Feed

Abstract

The objective of this work was the evaluation of the meat production and laying performances, and the meat and egg quality of two breeds of Vietnamese broiler chickens, Ho and Dong Tao, fed on a commercial diet. In a survey, we continuously recorded for 28 weeks, the data on the production performance and meat quality of 250 chicks from each breed. We investigated egg laying and egg quality using 36 Ho and 32 Dong Tao hens during 52 weeks of laying. The growth patterns were similar for the two breeds. Feed conversion ratios were also similar, and demonstrated the low efficiency of these two breeds when compared to commercial broilers. Slaughter age proved to affect several carcass yield characteristics, showing that slaughtering between 16 and 20 weeks might be better than at the usual age of 28 weeks. Yield, carcass composition and meat quality differed between the two studied breeds. The eggs production and number of embryonated eggs were low for the two breeds when compared to other breeds, with a lower hatching performance in Ho than in Dong Tao. In summary, the production performances of Ho and Dong Tao chickens were low, even when birds were fed a commercial diet. The study demonstrates the need to find ways to improve the production and reproduction performances of these animals, in order to contribute to the program of conservation and exploitation of these two breeds.

Biometric Characterization of the Portuguese Autochthonous Hens Breeds

“…Several studies of morphometric index are performed worldwide, the vast majority directly related to the breed characterization and conformation [10,20,24,35,36], but the use of zoometric measures as a strategy to facilitate the implementation of conservation policies aimed to ensure local resources survival, is still beginning in avian populations [37], particularly in Portugal [11,13,38].…”

“…Morphological traits are essential to implement breeding programs and dimensions of certain morphological variables could make them suitable, from a productive point of view, for meat (breast measurement) or egg productions (body and dorsal lengths, head length) [19,22,24,27,37,51]. Autochthonous Portuguese hens present morphological traits which would made them more prone to meat production ("Branca"), although the dimensions of certain morphological variables could make them suitable for doublepurpose production ("Pedrês Portuguesa" and "Amarela") and is important to consider a breeding programs adjustment to underline their productive potential [36,44,46].…”

Are Dual-Purpose Chickens Twice as Good? Measuring Performance and Animal Welfare throughout the Fattening Period

“…The five key factors were found to be availability, willingness to pay, actions by NGOs, initiatives of retailers, and the introduction and communication of new concepts. This outline would be transferable to dual-purpose chickens extended by the idea of the agro-ecological and sustainable conservation of native breeds [33][34][35].…”

Variability of Meat and Carcass Quality from Worldwide Native Chicken Breeds

“…Furthermore, chicken meat is an extensively acknowledged, essential-amino-acids-rich source of quality and cheap protein, which presents important minerals and vitamins (such as threonine, lysine, methionine, cysteine, and tryptophan) [ 19 ]. Poultry meat quality has been reported to be highly influenced by bird genetics [ 20 ]. Moreover, several husbandry factors, including feeding, breeding, and management (pre-slaughter, stunning, slaughter and post-slaughter procedures, chilling, and storage conditions) can somehow influence carcass and meat traits [ 18 , 21 ].…”