Choice of breeding stock, preference of production traits and culling criteria of village chickens among Zimbabwe agro-ecological zones

Abstract

Free ranging chickens reared by smallholder farmers represent genetic diversity suited for particular environments and shaped by the socio-economic and cultural values of the farming systems. This study sought to investigate the existence of chicken strains and evaluate the breeding goals and strategies used by village chicken farmers in Zimbabwe. A semi-structured questionnaire was administered to 97, 56, 70, 104 and 37 households randomly selected from five agro-ecological-zones I-V, respectively. Fifteen chicken strains mostly defined by morphological traits were reported in the five eco-zones. Production criteria such as body size, and fertility were highly ranked (ranging from 1.3-2.6) by farmers across all the eco-zones, while cultural traits were the least preferred production traits. As a common breeding practice, farmers chose the type of hens and cocks to retain for breeding purposes and these randomly mixed and mated with others from community flocks. Chicken body size was ranked the major determinant in choosing breeding animals followed by mothering ability, and fertility. More households culled chickens associated with poor reproductive performance, poor growth rates and those intolerant to disease pathogens. The focus on many negatively correlated production traits and the absence of farmer records compromises breeding strategies in these production systems.

Production objectives and trait preferences of village poultry producers of Ethiopia: implications for designing breeding schemes utilizing indigenous chicken genetic resources

“…Adaptation to the production environment was the most important attribute of chickens both in the lowland and highlands in males as well as females (except in the highlands where it is considered second in importance following egg number). Almost similar order of ranking was reported by Muchadeyi et al (2009) for village chickens in Zimbabwe where farmers across all ecological regions attributed the highest importance to reproductive performance, growth, and survival in the production environment rating plumage color as the least important. In Jordan, village farmers considered egg production as the most important criterion, followed by mothering ability and body weight, for selecting their breeding stock (Abdelqader et al 2007).…”

“…This trait category was described similarly and attributed comparable level of importance in other species of livestock produced by village farmers (Solomon 2008). Similarly, Muchadeyi et al (2009) reported that poultry farmers in Zimbabwe traditionally selected compact and mature birds rather than angular and tallish ones as breeding stocks though they attached no emphasis to plumage color.…”

Farmers’ choice of genotypes and trait preferences in tropically adapted chickens in five agro-ecological zones in Nigeria

“…Within each zone, traits of preference for selection of breeding stock in the present study tended towards body size, egg number, egg size, and meat taste. The observation on body size is in consonance with the findings of Muchadeyi et al (2009) where the trait was ranked first among the criteria for choosing chicken breeding stock. Similarly, Mahoro et al (2018) included body size and egg yield among the important economic traits to select the indigenous chickens.…”

Genetic characterization of Thai indigenous chickens compared with commercial lines

“…Rural chick production, mainly consisting of indigenous chickens, plays a major role in the tropical communities (Aklilu et al 2007;Sekeroglu and Aksimsek 2009;Muchadeyi et al 2009). The scavenging instinct and mothering abilities of local chickens are preferable behaviors (Abdelqader et al 2007); however, production and fertility is not compromised, the diversity is now at the stage of rapid erosion.…”