Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries Development, P.O. Box 9152, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania; Department of Animal Science and Production, Sokoine University of Agriculture, P.O. Box 3004, Morogoro, Tanzania
Mbaga, S.H., Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries Development, P.O. Box 9152, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania; Sanka, Y.D., Department of Animal Science and Production, Sokoine University of Agriculture, P.O. Box 3004, Morogoro, Tanzania
The objective of this study was to determine the effect of rearing systems, sex and age at slaughter on growth performance and carcass traits of local chicken. A total of 96 local weaned chicks (two months old) were bought from farmers in Morogoro peri-urban and reared under two different rearing system viz. intensive and semi-intensive systems. The birds were initially weighed and randomly assigned to each rearing system with equal number of males and females (48 birds per system). Two pens with deep litter were used to house the birds. Spacing for birds in both systems was 4birds/m2. However, birds under semi-intensive system had free access to grassy paddock (1 bird/10m2). All birds were offered the same diet with semi-intensive group receiving half of what was offered to the intensive group. Random sample of 24 males and 24 females in each rearing system were slaughtered at five and seven month. Body weights at slaughter and body weight gain of birds from semi-intensive system were significantly lower than of those kept in intensive system. There was no difference in dressing percentage between the two rearing systems, the values being 65.2% and 65.7% for intensive and semi-intensive respectively. Dressing percent was higher (67.7%) at seven month than at five month of age (63.2%). The rearing systems significantly affected the breast percentage, being higher in semi-intensive (25.1%) compared to intensive system (23.3%). Thigh percent was not influenced by rearing system or slaughter age, while drum stick percent was significantly lower at seven month old bird compared to five month old birds. From the study, it is concluded that local chicken with modest supplementation and assuming availability of scavenging feed resources, semi-confinement system of chicken rearing could be more appropriate for the small holder poultry keepers.