Evaluation of three final hybrid layer chicken Strains under on-station management

Three final hybrid strain of chicken were evaluated for production performance under typical floor housing system in Jimma, Ethiopia. One hundred fifty of each of Dominant Sussex, Lohman Brown and Novo Brown breed of day-old chicks obtained from DebreZeitAgriculture Research center was placed at Jimma University College of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine (JUCAVM) brooder house on standard commercial starter’s ration in completely randomized design with three replicates. At the end of the brooding period, each group was transferred to growers and layer’s house and switched to standard growers and layer’s ration at an age of 8 and 20 weeks, respectively. Finally all the data collected on performance of the experimental breeds of chickens were subjected to statistical analysis to test the breeds’ performance under Jimma condition. The results obtained showed that the mean daily body weight gain (BWG) recorded from Novo Brown and Dominant Sussex breeds of chicks during brooding period were significantly higher (P<0.05) than Lohman Brown. Mean live weight of 573g/head was attained by Novo Brown and Dominant Sussex chicks at an age of two months, the value of which was significantly (P<0.05) higher than that of Lohman Brown. Moreover, Novo Brown growers had significantly higher mean weekly BWG than the other two breeds (P<0.05), followed by Dominant Sussex. All the three breeds tested, performed better during the brooding period than during the rearing period in terms of feed conversion ratio (FCR). Novo Brown breed of chicks consumed less feed and brought significantly higher mean daily BWG both during brooding and rearing periods (P<0.05) compared to the others, indicating that Novo Brown was superior to the other two breeds in FCR. Mortality from hatching to 2 months of age (8%) was higher for Dominant Sussex, compared to 1.3% of mortality recorded from each of the other two breeds.Mortality rate from 9 to 20 weeks of age was higher for Dominant Sussex than for the other two breeds.There was no significant differences (P>0.05) among the three breeds tested in age at the first egg. The hen day egg production rate and egg weight of Dominant Sussex was better than other two breeds.In summary, the results of this experiment indicated that the Novo Brown breed of chicken performed better than Dominant Sussex and Lohman Brown breeds of chickens under Jimma condition in most of the economically important production traits studied.