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Comparative evaluation of growth performance, carcass characteristics and economics of production of Anak and Marshall broiler strains in a humid rain-forest zone of Nigeria
Abstract
This experiment was conducted at the poultry unit of the Teaching and Research farm, Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike to evaluate growth traits, carcass characteristics and economics of production of Anak and Marshal broiler strains. Ninety (90) broiler chicks comprising 45 birds each of Anak and Marshal strains were procured and used for the experiment. Each strain was allotted into five replicates of 9 birds per replicate in a Completely Randomized Design (CRD) Data were collected at both the starter phase (2-5 weeks) and finisher phas. (6-10 weeks). The parameters measured were growth performance traits, linear body measurements, carcass traits and economics of production indices. The result showed significant (P < 0.05) strain effect on final body weight (1090.14 and 1279.54 g) for Anak and Marshal, respectively at the starter phase. The organ characteristics indicated significantly (P < 0.05) higher relative weights of liver and kidney (1.88 and 0.66 %) in the Marshal strain than (1.80 and 0.62 %) in the Anak strain. The revenue/bird and gross margin were higher (P < 0.05) in the Marshal than the Anak at the starter phase but higher in the Anak at the finisher phase. The respective values were 647.58, 705.30 and 518.06, 435.02; 501.06, 555.01 and 320.37, 212.31 at the starter and finisher phases. The result showed no significant (P>0.05) strain effect in growth performance parameters and linear body traits. The significant differences observed for a few parameters between the strains suggest evidence of slight genetic variation and this can be utilized for genetic improvement of the strains. The higher gross margin obtained for Anak compared to Marshal at the finisher phase suggests that it is more economical to raise Anak for sale at mature age while Marshal should go for brood and sale. Generally, the Marshal strain compared favourably with the Anak and has shown to be adaptable to our study environment.
