COMPARATIVE STUDY AMONG LOCAL CHICKEN WITH TWO STRAINS FOR SOME PERFORMANCE TRAITS

Abstract

Performance of local breed, Iranian chickens, and Ross 308 were compared in this study. A total of 300 one-day old chicks were assigned to fifteen pens. The results showed that local breed had a body weight (BW) at 7 weeks of 0.180 kg, while Iranian chicken and Ross had BWs of 0.291, 2.763 kg respectively. The average weekly weight gain of local breed was 21 grams, compared to 36 and 338 grams for Iranian and Ross chickens, respectively. Ross 0.704 and Iranian chickens 0.199 both had higher average feed intake (FI) than local breed 0.132. Feed conversion ratio (FCR) of local breed was relatively high 6.327 compared to Ross 1.834 and Iranian chickens 5.327, respectively. As for mortality, Iranian chicken recorded a high rate 10% compared to local breed 9% and Ross chickens 6%. Moreover, there were no significant differences in the weights of the primary, secondary carcass parts and edible internal organs between local breed and Iranian chickens under the same conditions.

Keywords

• local breed
• ross strain
• iranian chicken traits