Egg production and egg quality characteristics in direct and reciprocal crosses using CARI Nirbheek and CARI Shyama

The present study was carried to study the direct and reciprocal crosses of native breed chickens namely Kadaknath (KN), Aseelpeela (AP), and CARI Red (CR) by comparing the efficiency of egg production, egg weight, and external and internal egg quality traits at 40^th week of age. The reciprocal crosses CR×KN and CR×AP showed significantly (P<0.01) lower egg weights compared to their counterpart cross KN×CR (CARI- Shyama) and AP×CR (CARI- Nirbheek). Egg quality traits such as albumen index, Haugh unit, albumen weight, and yolk index were significantly (P<0.01) higher in the reciprocal cross at 40^th week of age, whereas, others such as shape index, shell thickness, and yolk weight were comparable (P>0.05) among the crosses. Reciprocal crosses CR × KN and CR × AP had almost similar total egg production to their direct crosses KN × CR and AP × CR at almost all ages except 36^th to 40^th week of egg production which was significant (P<0.05). It was concluded that, reciprocal crosses have similar egg production with almost equal or better egg quality parameters to their direct crosses. The present study aims at the elucidating effect of reciprocal crossbreeding by using CARI Red as the male line in producing elite crosses for improvement in the production capacity of rural poultry in India.

HIGHLIGHTS

• Comparative evaluation of egg production and egg quality of three poultry breeds.

• Egg quality traits were significantly higher in reciprocal crosses.

• There was no effect on the egg production between reciprocal and direct crosses.