PDF(Pubmed)
Abstract：
UNASSIGNED: Indigenous chickens are very important to households for income and protein. However, their performance is usually poor, especially under small-scale farmer management, despite their potential to perform better. The performance of these chickens can be improved by selective breeding. However, for this to be a success, there is a need to understand the phenotypic and production characteristics of these chickens fully. Hence, this study aimed to characterize the phenotypes of these chickens and their production system among small-scale farmers.
UNASSIGNED: A structured questionnaire was administered to 177 small-scale farmers. A total of 538 chickens whose mean weight was 1.66 kg were individually phenotyped in Luapula, Muchinga, and Northern provinces of Zambia.
UNASSIGNED: Ownership of the indigenous chickens was dominated by females (65.37%), with most (64.31%) having attained primary education. Most housed their chickens in family houses (42.03%). All the farmers let their chickens scavenge for their feed, with 45.58% of them providing basic supplementation. Most (84.10%) farmers bought their breed stock from within their community and had a mean flock size of 12.5 chickens/household, which they mostly (78.09%) kept as free-range. The majority (77.39%) practiced culling, with low productivity being the most common reason for culling (84.45%). Only 59.01% of farmers practiced selective breeding, while 86.22% practiced uncontrolled mating. The age at first mating for cocks and hens was 6.8 months and 6.34 months, respectively, with 6.73 months being the age at first egg. It takes 15.43 days to reach a mean clutch size of 13 eggs. The hatchability and mortality at 8 weeks were 83.44% and 67.57%, respectively. All chickens were sold as live chickens, and the majority (51.59%) of the farmers sold their chickens within the community at 7.23 months. Diseases and predators were the most common challenges affecting farmers in the study area. Consultations with veterinarians, vaccinations, and deworming were uncommon while treating sick chickens mostly using ethnoveterinary medicines was common. The most common qualitative traits were brown (27.88%) and mixed (26.77%) plumage color, white skins (91.45%) and shanks (48.70%), single comb type (91.08%), red earlobe (55.76%), and orange eyes (78.07%). All linear body measurements positively and significantly correlated with the body weight averaging 1.66kgs, an indicator that selection for any of them would result in a corresponding increase in body weight. Principal Component Analysis extracted two components with 69.38% of the total variation.
UNASSIGNED: The diversity in phenotypes of these chickens and their production systems indicate huge potential for improvement by implementing breeding programs.
UNASSIGNED: A structured questionnaire was administered to 177 small-scale farmers. A total of 538 chickens whose mean weight was 1.66 kg were individually phenotyped in Luapula, Muchinga, and Northern provinces of Zambia.
UNASSIGNED: Ownership of the indigenous chickens was dominated by females (65.37%), with most (64.31%) having attained primary education. Most housed their chickens in family houses (42.03%). All the farmers let their chickens scavenge for their feed, with 45.58% of them providing basic supplementation. Most (84.10%) farmers bought their breed stock from within their community and had a mean flock size of 12.5 chickens/household, which they mostly (78.09%) kept as free-range. The majority (77.39%) practiced culling, with low productivity being the most common reason for culling (84.45%). Only 59.01% of farmers practiced selective breeding, while 86.22% practiced uncontrolled mating. The age at first mating for cocks and hens was 6.8 months and 6.34 months, respectively, with 6.73 months being the age at first egg. It takes 15.43 days to reach a mean clutch size of 13 eggs. The hatchability and mortality at 8 weeks were 83.44% and 67.57%, respectively. All chickens were sold as live chickens, and the majority (51.59%) of the farmers sold their chickens within the community at 7.23 months. Diseases and predators were the most common challenges affecting farmers in the study area. Consultations with veterinarians, vaccinations, and deworming were uncommon while treating sick chickens mostly using ethnoveterinary medicines was common. The most common qualitative traits were brown (27.88%) and mixed (26.77%) plumage color, white skins (91.45%) and shanks (48.70%), single comb type (91.08%), red earlobe (55.76%), and orange eyes (78.07%). All linear body measurements positively and significantly correlated with the body weight averaging 1.66kgs, an indicator that selection for any of them would result in a corresponding increase in body weight. Principal Component Analysis extracted two components with 69.38% of the total variation.
UNASSIGNED: The diversity in phenotypes of these chickens and their production systems indicate huge potential for improvement by implementing breeding programs.
摘要：
■土鸡对家庭的收入和蛋白质非常重要。然而,他们的表现通常很差，特别是在小农经营下，尽管他们有可能表现得更好。这些鸡的性能可以通过选择性育种来改善。然而,为了成功，有必要充分了解这些鸡的表型和生产特征。因此，这项研究旨在表征这些鸡的表型及其在小规模农民中的生产系统。
■对177名小农进行了结构化问卷调查。在Luapula中，总共对平均体重为1.66kg的538只鸡进行了表型分析，Muchinga,和赞比亚北部省份。
■土鸡的所有权以雌性为主（65.37%），大多数（64.31％）获得了初等教育。大多数人将鸡饲养在家庭房屋中（42.03％）。所有的农民都让他们的鸡去捡饲料，其中45.58%提供基本补充。大多数（84.10％）农民从社区内购买了他们的品种，平均羊群大小为12.5只鸡/户，他们大多(78.09%)是自由放养的。大多数(77.39%)实行扑杀，生产率低是剔除的最常见原因(84.45%)。只有59.01%的农民实行选择性育种,86.22％的人进行了不受控制的交配。公鸡和母鸡首次交配的年龄分别为6.8个月和6.34个月,分别,6.73个月是第一个鸡蛋的年龄。需要15.43天才能达到13个鸡蛋的平均离合器大小。8周时孵化率和死亡率分别为83.44%和67.57%,分别。所有的鸡都被当作活鸡出售,大多数（51.59％）的农民在7.23个月时在社区内出售了鸡只。疾病和捕食者是影响研究区域农民的最常见挑战。与兽医协商，疫苗接种,驱虫并不常见，而主要使用民族兽药治疗病鸡很常见。最常见的定性性状为棕色(27.88%)和混色(26.77%),白皮肤(91.45%)和小腿(48.70%)，单梳型（91.08%），红耳垂（55.76%），橙色眼睛（78.07%）。所有线性身体测量值与平均1.66kg体重呈正相关且显着相关，选择它们中的任何一个都会导致体重相应增加的指标。主成分分析提取了两个成分，占总变异的69.38％。
■这些鸡的表型及其生产系统的多样性表明，通过实施育种计划进行改进的巨大潜力。
■对177名小农进行了结构化问卷调查。在Luapula中，总共对平均体重为1.66kg的538只鸡进行了表型分析，Muchinga,和赞比亚北部省份。
■土鸡的所有权以雌性为主（65.37%），大多数（64.31％）获得了初等教育。大多数人将鸡饲养在家庭房屋中（42.03％）。所有的农民都让他们的鸡去捡饲料，其中45.58%提供基本补充。大多数（84.10％）农民从社区内购买了他们的品种，平均羊群大小为12.5只鸡/户，他们大多(78.09%)是自由放养的。大多数(77.39%)实行扑杀，生产率低是剔除的最常见原因(84.45%)。只有59.01%的农民实行选择性育种,86.22％的人进行了不受控制的交配。公鸡和母鸡首次交配的年龄分别为6.8个月和6.34个月,分别,6.73个月是第一个鸡蛋的年龄。需要15.43天才能达到13个鸡蛋的平均离合器大小。8周时孵化率和死亡率分别为83.44%和67.57%,分别。所有的鸡都被当作活鸡出售,大多数（51.59％）的农民在7.23个月时在社区内出售了鸡只。疾病和捕食者是影响研究区域农民的最常见挑战。与兽医协商，疫苗接种,驱虫并不常见，而主要使用民族兽药治疗病鸡很常见。最常见的定性性状为棕色(27.88%)和混色(26.77%),白皮肤(91.45%)和小腿(48.70%)，单梳型（91.08%），红耳垂（55.76%），橙色眼睛（78.07%）。所有线性身体测量值与平均1.66kg体重呈正相关且显着相关，选择它们中的任何一个都会导致体重相应增加的指标。主成分分析提取了两个成分，占总变异的69.38％。
■这些鸡的表型及其生产系统的多样性表明，通过实施育种计划进行改进的巨大潜力。
