Productivity, economic performances and survivability of exotic chicken breeds under small-scale chicken production system in South Gondar Zone, Ethiopia

The study was conducted to evaluate the growth, survivability and egg production performance of Bovans Brown and SassoT44 commercial chicken breeds reared in small-scale chicken production enterprises in selected districts of South Gondar Zone in Ethiopia. A multi-stage sampling technique was used to collect data in the year 2019. A total of 21 small-scale chicken farms and 350 chickens were selected for the survey and monitoring-data collection, respectively. The survey data was analyzed using SPSS Version 20 and the GLM procedure of SAS 9.2 was used for the monitoring data. The majority of the producers (71.4%) reared Sasso T44 breed. Most of the farms (90.5%) used commercial feed even though they are challenged by feed shortage and increased feed cost. The interaction effect of breed-district was significant on the body weight and daily weight gain of chickens that the body weights of Sasso T44 chickens at different ages in Addis Zemen district was significantly higher than the other two districts. The overall mortality rate of the chickens up to the 22th weeks of age was 13.2% and 11.5% for Sasso T44, and Bovans Brown, respectively. The average egg production per hen up to the 45th weeks of age was significantly (P<0.05) higher for Bovans than Sasso T44. The overall hen day egg production in the first phase (up to the 45th weeks of age) was 65.6% and 57.8% for Bovans Brown and Sasso T44, respectively. There was a significant difference (P<0.0001) in age at first egg between the two breeds that Bovans Brown (132 days) was better than Sasso T44 (164 days) breed. In general, chicken in Addis Zemen performed better both in growth and egg production. Sosso T44 breed was better in growth performance while Bovans Brown were better in egg production traits.