Growth, survival and egg production of exotic chicken breeds under small scale production system in Bahir Dar City Administration, Amhara Region, Ethiopia

Growth, survival and egg production performance and profitability of exotic chicken breeds were evaluated under small-scale chicken producers in urban and peri-urban areas of Bahir Dar City from 2018 to 2019. Data were collected using semi-structured questionnaires, monitoring and field observation. Thirty-three small-scale chicken enterprises (30 from urban and three from peri-urban areas) were included in this study. All questionnaire data were analyzed using SPSS Version 20. The monitoring data was analyzed with ANOVA using the general linear model (GLM) procedure of SAS version 9.0. The monitoring result revealed that the growth performance of chicken significantly varied with respect to breeds and production systems of producers. Sasso T44 had higher daily body weight gain (10.66 ± 0.03 g) and total body weight gain (1642 ± 5.02 g) within 22 weeks of age in the urban areas. The mean egg production for Bovans Brown at the age of six months was 124.8 ± 4.10 eggs. The annual mean egg production performance of Bovans Brown was 239.63 ± 4.32. The overall mortality rate of all exotic chicken was 6.5%. Despite many constraints, small-scale chicken production was profitable. Seasonal disease outbreaks, shortages of feed and housing problems were the major constraints of small-scale chicken producers. The growth performance and survival rate of exotic chicken was promising, but the egg production was low. Therefore, the management practices of small-scale chicken enterprises in the study area should be improved.