Effect of Age and Genetic Groups on Growth Performance of Crossed Koekoek and Sasso Chickens

摘要

This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of age and genetic groups on growth performance of crossed koekoek and sasso chickens. To fulfill this aim, a total of 360 randomly selected day-old-chicks (90 from each genetic group) were obtained from the hatchery of Jimma University College of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine poultry farm. And then, the chicks were placed at brooder house in completely randomized design within three replicates. At the end of the brooding period, each group was transferred to grower’s house. Data have been collected for sixteen weeks of age on the variables such as: body weight, daily weight gain, feed intake, feed conversion ratio and mortality. Finally, the collected data were entered in to a statistical analysis system (SAS, 2014, Version 9.3). The result revealed that Sasso (SS) had significantly (P<0.05) heavy body weight followed by crosses of Koekoek cockerels and Sasso pullets (KS crosses). In opposite, Koekoek (KK) parental breed was the least among others while crosses between Sasso cockerels and Koekoek pullets (SK crosses) were not far from KK. The values of mean and standard error for SS, KS, SK and KK were listed as follows: 983.00±12.55, 883.00±11.65, 820.00±11.60 and 702.00 ±10.05 at 8~(th) week, respectively. Among crosses, KS chicks gained significantly (P<0.05) higher daily body weight (15.04±0.25) than the SK chicks (13.96±0.20) at brooder phase. Further, the mean feed conversion ratio recorded for KS cross during brooding period were significantly (p<0.05) higher than the mean feed conversion ratio recorded for SK cross with values (2.55±0.04 and 2.70±0.05), respectively. In summary, the resulting progenies from crosses of KK and SS performed better than both parental breeds, thus suggesting that is possible to be an encouraging factor for the poultry breeders to cross these two breeds (Koekoek male and Sasso female) to get hybrid vigor in growth performance.