A Review on Production, Reproduction, Morphometric, and Morphological Characteristics of Ethiopian Native Chickens

Native chickens in Ethiopia are characterized in a fragmented manner for their performance characteristics and genotypes. This review aimed to explore the production and reproduction performance characteristics as well as the morphometric and morphological diversity of Ethiopian native chickens. The investigation was performed on four production performance characteristics, including average egg per clutch, average clutch/hen/year, average egg set/hen, and average egg/hen/year, as well as six reproductive performance characteristics, including age at first laying, age of male chickens at first bred, age at which female chickens are first bred, the reproductive life span of males and females, and fertility percentage in various parts of Ethiopia. Some economically practical morphometric characteristics of native chickens, such as shank length, chest circumference, comb length, body weight, body length, keel length, wattle length, neck length, back length, and morphological diversity, were also summarized. Regarding performance characteristics, there were some variations in eggs’ average production performance per clutch (13.56-15.4 eggs) and clutch/hen/year (3.0-4.29) in Ethiopia. The average reproduction performance characteristics of Ethiopian native chickens for age at first laying (6.90-7.13 months), age of male chickens at first bred (5.87-6.15 months), female at first bred (5.20-5.93 months), the reproductive life span of males (3.79 years) and hens (3.56 years), and chicks hatched from set eggs revealed variation across Ethiopia. In various locations of Ethiopia, the average trait values reported for Ethiopian native chickens under the farmer’s management differed in terms of morphometric and morphological features. The variation observed in performance characteristics, as well as morphometrics and morphological characteristics for Ethiopian native chicken ecotype population, can help the native breed classification, unique trait conservation, and breed improvement intervention programs.