Production System, and Egg Quality of Village Chicken Reared Under Traditional Management System in Angecha And Damboya Districts of Kembata Tembaro Zone, Southern Ethiopia

Abstract The study was conducted in two selected districts of Kembata Tembaro Zone, Southern Ethiopia with an aim of assessing the production system, performance and selected egg quality of village chicken reared under traditional management system. Multi-stage sampling technique was used to select representative sample and one hundred eight six respondents (186) were interviewed with structured questionnaire. The data were organized and analyzed by using SPSS and SAS. The mean of Eggs per clutch per hen, Age at first lay, and number of clutches per hen/year were 15.82±0.54, 7.08±0.25, 5.26±0.25 and Age of sexual Maturity (Male=7.67±0.306and female=8.13±0.301), respectively. The predominate breed is exotic (59.6%) with village chicken production system. 50.55% of the respondents keep chicken in Perch at one corner in common house, 45.70% were practicing of isolation of sick birds from healthy to prevent disease transmission. The mean of eggs incubated, hatched and hatchability of percentages were (14.5±0.55, 12.5±0.57 and 80.5), respectively. The study revealed that 40.32, 26.2 and 17.32% of respondent’s rear chicken for sale, home consumption and non-defined purpose, respectively. The highest percentage of the interviewed respondent’s utilization of eggs were for selling purpose 30.1% (Mid-land) and 31.7% (High land). Regarding egg storage condition in high land and mid land agro ecology about 21.5% and 18.3% of the respondents store their eggs in inside cold container respectively. The major constraints of chicken production in the study areas were prevalence of disease, high chick mortality, predator attack, shortage of feed and grains and lack of parent stock, respectively. The most economically important disease that attacks chicken was Newcastle disease which is locally known as “Kenbesha” in the study areas. All egg quality parameters were statistically similar (P>0.05) among the agro ecology except significant difference (P≤0.05) on egg yolk height and albumen height. Shell thickness was comparable to the acceptable egg shell thickness to withstand egg breakage. The yolk index values of the eggs obtained from both agro ecology ranged from 0.54–0.56. The HU value that determine the quality of albumen was within the range of 70-100 set for good egg quality. Therefore, efforts should be geared to alleviate constraints like prevalence of disease, High chick mortality, predator attack, shortage of feed and lack of parent stock hampering chicken production, training of smallholder farmers on chicken housing practices and further research was required on external and internal egg quality determination under different production system.