Characterization of Chicken Production Systems and On-Farm Performance Evaluation of Sasso, Sasso-RIR and Improved Horro chickens in Adami Tulu and Dugda Districts of Oromia, Ethiopia

The study was conducted on 120 randomly selected households for characterization of chicken production systems and at on-farm in 144 purposively selected households to comparative performance of Sasso, Sasso-RIR and Improved Horro in Adami Tullu and Dugda districts. The average chicken flock size in the study area was 11.8. The main source of foundation flock was inherited. Majority of households had no experiences of rearing exotic chickens. Body weight and feather colour for cocks and egg productivity and body weight for hen were important selection criteria. The main purpose of chicken keeping was for sale. The average age at sexual maturity of indigenous hen and cock was 26.4 and 25.1 weeks respectively. The average numbers eggs per clutch for indigenous chickens and annual egg production were 16.2 and 47 respectively. The majority of households were supplemented of grains to their chickens. The average body weight of male Sasso and Sasso-RIR chickens at 12 weeks were 888.4g, 933.2g in Adami Tullu and 885g, 942.5g in Dugda at on farm respectively. At 18 weeks these chickens were weighed 1640.76g, 1598g in Adami Tullu and 1583.3g, 1595.8g in Dugda respectively. While average body weight of male improved Horro was 482g, 512g and 933.2g, 956.3g at 12 and 18 weeks in Adami Tullu and Dugda respectively. Whereas, females of Sasso and Sasso-RIR were weighed 877.3g, 899.5g and 922.7g, 902.4g at 12 weeks, and 1476g, 1436g and 1485g, 1471g at 20 weeks in Adami Tullu and Dugda respectively. On the otherhand, the average body weight of female improved Horro were 448.2g, 475g at 12 weeks and 951g, 989g at 20 weeks in Adami Tullu and Dugda respectively. The average age at first lay of Sasso, Sasso-RIR and improved Horro were 5.6, 5.8, 6.5 and 5.7, 5.6, 6.2 months in Adami Tullu and Dugda respectively. Whereas, average egg weight of 51.29g, 52.38g, 41.92g in Adami Tullu and 51.62g, 53.29g, 43.49g in Dugda for Sasso, Sasso-RIR and improved Horro respectively. The average numbers of egg per hen up to 45 weeks of Sasso, Sasso-RIR and improved Horro were 65.9, 64.4, 52.3 and 60.2, 65, 63.4 in Adami Tullu and Dugda respectively. The households were highly preferred body size and growth rate of introduced breeds. The egg production introduced breeds was much higher than indigenous chicken. Major constraints poultry production in the study area were diseases outbreak, feed problem, predator and lack of finance to purchase inputs.