Egg production potentials of certain indigenous …

1 Egg production potentials of certain indigenouschicken breeds from south Grobbelaar1,B. Molalakgotla11 Agricultural Research Council, Livestock Business Division, Irene, Private Bag x2, Irene 0062, south Africa;2 Faculty of Science,Department of Animal Sciences, Tshwane University of Technology, Private Bag x680, Pretoria 0001, south AfricaSummaryThe aim of this study was to determine the egg production potentials of four different indigenous chicken breeds in south Africa:Potchefstroom Koekoek, Venda, Ovambo and Naked Neck.

2 The White Leghorn breed was used as the control. The egg productionpotentials were evaluated over two consecutive production cycles of 52 weeks (used as replicates). Data were collected at the exper-imental farm of the Agriculture Research Council at Irene. Treatment means were separated using Fisher s protectedt-test least signifi-cant difference at the 5 percent level of significance and the percentage mortality rate by means of a row by column chi-square test. Nosignificant differences were observed between breeds on the mean age to the production of thefirst egg.

3 The White Leghorn wassuperior (p ) to all four of the indigenous breeds for the mean number of eggs and percentage hen-housed egg production pro-duced per production cycle. The Potchefstroom Koekoek was also superior (p ) to the other three indigenous breeds for theseparameters. There was no difference between the Ovambo and Naked Neck breeds. The percentage mortality rate for the WhiteLeghorn ( percent) was significantly (p ) different from that of the Venda, Ovambo and Potchefstroom Koekoek ( per-cent). No differences were observed among the Potchefstroom Koekoek, Venda, Ovambo and Naked Neck ( percent) or betweenthe White Leghorn and Naked Neck with regard to the mean percentage :chicken, egg production , indigenousR sum Le but de l tude tait de d terminer le potentiel de production en ufs de quatre esp ces de poules d Afrique du Sud (PotchefstroomKoekoek, Venda, Ovambo et Naked Neck) ainsi que la Leghorn Blanche.

4 Le potentiel de production en ufs fut valu sur deux cyclesde production cons cutifs de 52 semaines (utilis comme r sultats reproductibles). Les donn es furent recueillies la fermeexp rimentale du Conseil de Recherche Agricole, Irene. Les moyens de traitement furent s par s en utilisant le test t prot g deFisher diff rence la moins significative au niveau d importance de 5 percent et le pourcentage du taux de mortalit au moyen d untest d une ligne par colonne 2. Aucune diff rence significative ne fut d cel e entre les esp ces de l age moyen jusqu la productiondu premier uf.

5 Des diff rences significatives (p ) se pr sent rent pour le pourcentage moyen des poules h berg es et le nombred ufs produit par cycle de production entre les Leghorn Blanches et les quatre esp ces indig nes. Avec ces param tres lePotchefstroom Koekoek, diff re de fa on significative des autres trois esp ces. Aucune diff rence ne soit obtenue entre le sOvambo et les Naked Neck. Une diff rence significative (p ) c est produit pour le pourcentage moyen du taux de mortalit entre Les Leghorns Blanches et les Potchefstroom Koekoek, les Venda et les Ovambo.

6 Aucune diff rence ne fut obtenue entre lesPotchefstroom Koekoek, les Venda, les Ovambo et les Naked Neck ainsi que entre les Leghorn Blanches et les Ovambo par rapportau pourcentage moyen de mortalit .Mots-cl s:indig ne, poules, production d oeufsResumenEl objetivo de este estudio fue determinar el potencial de puesta de cuatro diferentes razas locales de gallinas presentes enSud frica. stas fueron la Potchefstroom Koekoek, la Venda, la Ovambo y la Naked Neck (cuello desnudo). Se utiliz a laLeghorn Blanca como control. Los potenciales de puesta fueron evaluados a lo largo de dos ciclos consecutivos deproducci n de 52 semanas (utilizados como duplicados).

7 Los datos fueron tomados en la granja experimental del Consejo deInvestigaci n Agr cola en Irene. Los medios del tratamiento fueron separados utilizando la prueba T protegida de Fisher, difer-encia menos significativa al nivel de importancia del 5 percent, y el porcentaje de tasa de mortalidad por medio de unafila atrav s de la prueba 2. No se hallaron diferencias significativas entre razas con respecto a la edad de puesta del primer huevo. LaLeghorn Blanca fue superior (p ) en cuanto al n mero medio de huevos producidos, y para el porcentaje de huevos puestospor ciclo de producci n con respecto a las cuatro razas locales.

8 La Potchefstroom Koekoek fue tambi n superior (p ) conrespecto al n mero de huevos producidos en comparaci n a las otras tres razas locales para los par metros mencionados ante-riormente. No se evidenciaron diferencias entre la Ovambo y la Naked Neck. El porcentaje de mortalidad para la Leghorn Blanca(39,5 percent) fue significativamente diferente (p ) a las de la Venda, Ovambo y Potchefstroom Koekoek (22,2 percent). NoCorrespondence to: Grobbelaar, Agricultural Research Council, LivestockBusiness Division, Irene, Private Bag x2, Irene 0062, south Africa.

9 Genetic Resources, 2010, 46, 25 32. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 2010 observaron diferencias entre la Potchefstroom Koekoek, la Venda, la Ovambo y la Naked Neck (32,2 percent), o entre laLeghorn Blanca y la Naked Neck, con respecto al porcentaje de mortalidad clave:local, gallina, producci n de huevosSubmitted 30 June 2008; accepted 10 September 2009 IntroductionThe poultry production systems for egg production inSouth Africa can be divided into three distinct systems:commercial egg production , semi-intensive egg productionand household egg production ( south African PoultryAssociation, 2006).

10 Most of the chicken eggs for humanconsumption are produced by 319 commercial enterprisesin south Africa, which have an estimated 10 000 employ-ees ( south African Poultry Association, 2006). For thecommercial farmer to befinancially viable, the followingegg production parameters are important: the number of eggs produced by a hen in a productioncycle must exceed 280 eggs, a daily hen-housed egg production of 75 to 95 percent, a low mortality rate, and an efficient feed conversion contrast to the commercial egg producer, the farmerswho want to produce eggs commercially under semi-intensive conditions prefer to keep a chicken breed thatcan produce sufficient eggs, survive under semi-intensiveconditions and provide profits.