Comparative evaluation of growth performance, carcass characteristics and economics of production of Anak and Marshall broiler strains in a humid rain-forest zone of Nigeria

This experiment was conducted at the poultry unit of the Teaching and Research farm, Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike to evaluate growth traits, carcass characteristics and economics of production of Anak and Marshal broiler strains. Ninety (90) broiler chicks comprising 45 birds each of Anak and Marshal strains were procured and used for the experiment. Each strain was allotted into five  replicates of 9 birds per replicate in a Completely Randomized Design (CRD)  Data were collected at both the starter phase (2-5 weeks) and finisher phas. (6-10 weeks). The  parameters measured were growth performance traits, linear body measurements, carcass traits and economics of production indices. The result showed significant (P 0.05) strain effect in growth performance parameters and linear body traits. The significant differences observed for a few parameters between the strains suggest evidence of slight genetic variation and this can be utilized for genetic improvement of the strains. The higher gross margin obtained for Anak compared to Marshal at the finisher phase suggests that it is more economical to raise Anak for sale at mature age while Marshal should go for brood and sale. Generally, the Marshal strain compared favourably with the Anak and has shown to be adaptable to our study environment.