Evaluation of Carcass Characteristics and Egg Quality Traits of Kuroiler and Sasso Chickens Reared Under On-Station and On-Farm Management Conditions in Tanzania

Abstract

Two studies were conducted to evaluate the carcass characteristics and egg quality traits of Sasso and Kuroiler chickens under on-farm and on-station management conditions. Carcass characteristics were evaluated under on-station only while egg quality was evaluated under both management conditions. A total of 240 hens and 240 cocks were raised under on-station condition and evaluated for egg and carcass quality respectively. Meanwhile, 320 hens were raised under on-farm condition and evaluated for egg quality only. At the end of each of the 16th and 20th weeks of age, a sample of 10 cocks per breed was randomly selected and sacrificed for carcass traits evaluation. To study egg quality, a total of 666 fresh eggs (246 eggs from on-farm and 420 eggs from on-station) were used to evaluate the external and internal egg quality traits. The recorded data were analyzed using the General Linear Models (GLM) procedure of SAS software ( SAS 2009). The results show that except for shell, yolk and albumen ratios, the mean values of other egg quality traits studied were higher for on-station than on-farm. Kuroiler chickens had higher values for egg weight, egg length, yolk weight, albumen height and Haugh unit than Sasso chickens. Live weight, carcass weight and carcass parts weight were found to be higher for Sasso than for Kuroiler at both ages of slaughter. It is concluded that there are variations between managements and breeds on egg quality traits. Carcass characteristics are affected by both breed and slaughter age.

Growth performance, survivability and profitability of improved smallholder chicken genetics in Nigeria: A COVID-19 intervention study

“…The observed genetic effect on survivability is consistent with the findings of Ajayi et al (2020). Similar observations have also been made on chickens in Nigeria (Ademola et al, 2020), Ethiopia (Kassa et al, 2021), and Tanzania (Guni et al, 2021b).…”

“…The present findings are consistent with the submission of Kassa et al (2021) that breed-environment interaction could influence the phenotypic expression of traits. Similar genotype by location interaction effect on growth traits has Frontiers in Genetics frontiersin.org 10 been documented in improved indigenous and tropically adapted chickens (Ajayi et al, 2020;Guni et al, 2021b). The lower mortality of birds in Nasarawa State might be attributed to better management practices, which is consistent with the findings of Alemu et al (2021).…”

“…When other factors such as productive abilities, choice of breeds and traits of preference (Yakubu et al, 2020) are put into consideration, the present information may guide improved chicken breeds distribution to farmers in different agroecologies in Nigeria. Such breed by agro-ecology interaction effect on survivability has also been advocated by Guni et al (2021b) as a means of distributing improved chicken breeds for optimal performance.…”

Phenotypic and morphobiometric characterization of local chicken (Gallus gallus) in family breeding on the outskirts of Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of Congo

“…The average live body weight was 1.25 ± 0.52 kg for cocks and 1.06 ± 0.29 kg for hens. These values are lower than those reported by Moula et al (2012a) in the Kabylia region of Algeria (males -1.43 ± 0.18 kg; females -1.14 ± 0.18 kg), Getu et al (2014) in Ethiopia (males -1.63 ± 0.30 kg; females -1.37 ± 0.20 kg), Guni et al (2013) in Tanzania (males -2.10 ± 0.29 kg females -1.53 ± 0.16 kg), and Jesuyon and Salako (2013) in Nigeria (males -2.40 ± 0.14 kg; females -1.50 ± 0.14 kg). However, these results are higher than those reported by Moula et al (2012b) in the province of Bas-Congo of the DRC where the average weight of males was 1.03 ± 0.72 kg compared to 0.90 ± 0.20 kg for females.…”

Comparative Study of Egg Quality Traits of Sasso Chicken Breed under Different Management Systems and Phenotypic Correlation of Egg Parameters in Ethiopia

“…In the present study, the egg shape index was 73.5% (on-station) and 74% on the on-farm that is lower for on-station (75.5%) and almost similar for onfarm (73.9%) as the report of Guni et al [20] which could be explained by the size and weight of an egg. Normally egg length and width are the determinants of the shape of an egg, which were also higher for on-station eggs (57.05mm and 43mm for egg length and width, respectively) than on-farm (55.9 and 41.3mm for egg length and width, respectively)" [24]. Sokołowicz et al [25] had "a comparable observation where the egg shape index was found to be higher for birds under deep litter than those from free-range and organic systems".…”