Performance study of Non-descript, Hilly and Naked Neck indigenous chicken at fifth generation

The present study was conducted at Bangladesh Livestock Research Institute, Savar, Dhaka to assess the performances of three Indigenous Chicken genotypes under intensive management. A total of 1128-day-old chicks comprising of 3 types of chicken namely Naked Neck (NN), Hilly (H) and Non-descript Deshi (ND) were hatched in one batch for this study. Significant (p<0.001) body weight differences among the genotypes were observed at 12th and 16th weeks of age, with the highest body weight observed for H genotype (1250.71±27.71, and 1502.54±36.81g) among the other two genotypes. NN genotype (2.85%) had significantly higher chick mortality than ND (0.68 %) and H (2.08 %) genotypes at 0-8 weeks of age. The age at first egg laid was significantly (p<0.001) affected by genotype. The age at which Indigenous Chickens start laying eggs ranged from 152.79 to 161.95 days. The Hen-day egg production (HDEP%) observed in the present study were affected significantly (p<0.001) by genotype. In this study, the average HDEP% of ND, H and NN were found to be 38.44±2.18, 30.43±2.10 and 41.95±2.11. Eight week body weight of males ND, H and NN birds were expected to increase by 64.7, 46.1 and 43.9g, respectively. While in females ND, H and NN birds, the expected responses were 21.5, 27.9 and 10.7g, respectively Bangladesh J. of Livestock Res. 21-25: 153-158, 2018