Growing Patterns of the Branca Chicken Breed—Concentrate vs. Maize-Based Diet

Abstract

Local chicken breeds are threatened with extinction. They must be preserved in order to maintain genetic diversity. The best strategy to preserve these breeds is to understand how they can be made interesting in production systems. With this strategy in mind, this study aimed to understand the growth patterns of the Branca breed, which is fed maize and commercial rations. A trial was conducted with N = 40 chickens, n = 10, in each of the combinations of gender and diet (cocks fed on ration, cocks fed on maize, hens fed on ration, and hens fed on maize). The first step was to determine the best nonlinear model to fit the growth data. After selecting the best fitting model, this was used to estimate the growth, relative growth rate, and instantaneous growth rate curves. The best fit was achieved with the Brody model. Ration-fed cocks grow faster and mature later, as the relative growth rate converges to zero later, while maize-fed hens show slower growth. Maize-fed cocks mature earlier as the relative growth rate converges to zero earlier. Maize-fed cocks and ration-fed hens show intermediate growth patterns compared to ration-fed cocks and maize-fed hens, and similar while comparing with each other. This is a slow-growing breed that reaches the slaughter-ready size at around the fifth month of age.