African Chicken Genetic Gains: Tanzania achievements todate

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundatio

Phenotypic characterization and production performance of local pigs under village settings in the southern highland zone, Tanzania

Indigenous pigs in Tanzania are descendants of earlier European introductions. However, a lack of systematic breeding plans, poor husbandry practices, genetic drift and possibly mutation have led to pigs of varied phentypes. A study undertaken in Mbeya region showed that the predominant management system practiced was free ranging and occasionally tethering. The average mature body weights for boars and sows were 57.4 kg and 54 gk, respectively. Coat colour varied, but the predominant colours were white (28%), black and white (24%), and solid black (19.8%). The majority (78%)of pigs had droopy ears and such pigs were found to be significantly (P<0.01) heavier with a longer trunk and increased body length when compared with those with erect ears. Other features include a long and straight face and short curled tail. The overall mean birth weight was 0.9kg while the mean weaning weight was 10.8 kg. The average litter size for local pigs was 6.6 piglets and litter size at weaning was 4.3 piglets. Locally raised pigs served a number of functions including among others, income, provision of meat, cooking fat and manure

Effects of storage time on the quality of local chicken meat

Tanzania Journal of Agricultural Sciences 2015, Vol. 13(1) : 48-54An experiment was carried out to investigate the proximate composition and effects of aging time on local chicken meat quality. For proximate analysis, 24 male and 24 female breast, thigh and drumstick samples from one half of the carcass were skinned, de-boned and frozen at -20oC. The samples were minced through a 5mm plate meat-grinding machine and vacuum packed prior to analyses. Proximate composition analysis of minced meat samples were performed on wet basis. The other half carcasses samples were chilled for 4, 6, 12 and 24 hours post mortem (PM) at 4oC. pH values were measured for each sample followed by storage at -20oC to arrest further changes in meat. Cooking loss and meat tenderness were determined for these samples. The proximate analysis showed that females had higher (P<0.05) overall dry matter and ether contents than males, while CP% and ash content were similar in the two sexes. Breast meat had higher (P<0.05) CP and ash content than meat cuts from the leg. Generally, breast meat had lower (P<0.05) pH (5.89) compared to meat from the thigh (6.14) and drumstick (6.15). pH of breast meat at 24 hours PM (5.82) was lower than that recorded at 4, 6 and 12 hours PM. Tenderness of meat as measured by shear force values significantly improved with storage time and decline in shear force values was more accentuated in the first six hours of aging. After this period, the values were less than 13.3N for drumstick and 18.9 N for both breast and thigh. The effect of storage time on cooking loss was more pronounced in leg meat than breast meat and cooking loss was much less when meat parts stored for 24 h. For production of acceptable tender meat from local chicken, the ideal cold storage time can be set at between 4 to 6 hours

Effects of storage time on the quality of local chicken meat

Tanzania Journal of Agricultural Sciences 2015, Vol. 13(1) : 48-54An experiment was carried out to investigate the proximate composition and effects of aging time on local chicken meat quality. For proximate analysis, 24 male and 24 female breast, thigh and drumstick samples from one half of the carcass were skinned, de-boned and frozen at -20oC. The samples were minced through a 5mm plate meat-grinding machine and vacuum packed prior to analyses. Proximate composition analysis of minced meat samples were performed on wet basis. The other half carcasses samples were chilled for 4, 6, 12 and 24 hours post mortem (PM) at 4oC. pH values were measured for each sample followed by storage at -20oC to arrest further changes in meat. Cooking loss and meat tenderness were determined for these samples. The proximate analysis showed that females had higher (P<0.05) overall dry matter and ether contents than males, while CP% and ash content were similar in the two sexes. Breast meat had higher (P<0.05) CP and ash content than meat cuts from the leg. Generally, breast meat had lower (P<0.05) pH (5.89) compared to meat from the thigh (6.14) and drumstick (6.15). pH of breast meat at 24 hours PM (5.82) was lower than that recorded at 4, 6 and 12 hours PM. Tenderness of meat as measured by shear force values significantly improved with storage time and decline in shear force values was more accentuated in the first six hours of aging. After this period, the values were less than 13.3N for drumstick and 18.9 N for both breast and thigh. The effect of storage time on cooking loss was more pronounced in leg meat than breast meat and cooking loss was much less when meat parts stored for 24 h. For production of acceptable tender meat from local chicken, the ideal cold storage time can be set at between 4 to 6 hours

Adopting participatory action research in strengthening pastoral communities to improve resilience to climate change

Pastoralists have a diversity of strategies to sustain livestock production which is important for their livelihoods. However, recently climate change has had devastating impact on pastoral way of life resulting into high livestock mortalities. Their strategies, based on centuries of exposure to intra- and inter-annual droughts may not work well now due to extended drought and constraints related to livestock movements. Thus there is a need to introduce innovations that will increase resilience of pastoralists to cope with the vagaries of weather. In situ cattle fattening is one of the adopted strategies. However, this is a new approach compared to free grazing and may require empowerment of the communities to adopt new technologies especially during period of pasture scarcity. The research adopted Participatory Action Research (PAR) to empower livestock keepers to take advantage of the available resources. Consequently it was expected that the nutritional and health status of animals will improve and pastoralist will venture into dry season cattle fattening conditions. Preliminary evaluation shows that the project has been accepted, but full adoption will depend on whether the technology will fit into fanners' own strategies as well as resolving some challenges associated with the practic

Africa Chicken genetic gains project: Availing adapted, farmer-preferred chickens for smallholders in sub- Saharan Africa

The African Chicken Genetic Gains (ACGG) project was started in 2014 and implemented over 5 years in Ethiopia, Tanzania, and Nigeria. The program’s vision is to increase smallholder chicken production and productivity growth as a pathway out of poverty in sub-Saharan Africa. The program was led by the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) being implemented in collaboration with partners. The project’s theory of change elaborates that production and productivity gains can be realized through the access of poor smallholder farmers to high-producing but agro-ecologically appropriate and farmer-preferred chicken strains. The project aspiration was to engage 7,500 farmers directly into on-farm research to test the productivity and performance of select chicken strains in each geography and stations. A total of 2100, 1746 and 2171 households received chicken in five sub-national zones in Nigeria, Tanzania, and Ethiopia respectively. In Nigeria a total of 57,400 chicks, in Tanzania a total of 43,224 chicks and in Ethiopia a total of 54,275 chicks were distributed from a total of 13 chicken strains (6 in Nigeria, 2 in Tanzania and 5 in Ethiopia). Meanwhile, a total of 6 stations, Debre Zeit Agricultural Research Center (DZARC) and Haramaya University (HU) in Ethiopia; the Federal University of Agriculture at Abeokuta (FUNAAB) in Nigeria, and the Fol-Hope Station and the Naliendele Agricultural Research Institute (NARI) and Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA) served as stations. In total, 5 strains in Nigeria, 2 strains in Tanzania and 4 strains in Ethiopia were tested under on-station conditions

On-station performance evaluation of improved tropically adapted chicken strains for smallholder poultry production systems in sub- Saharan Africa

Availability of appropriate genetics is important for the development of Smallholder Poultry (SHP) in Sub-Saharan Africa. The biological potential of improved dual purpose chicken strains was evaluated in Ethiopia, Tanzania and Nigeria. A total of 8 strains (Funaab Alpha, Horro, Noiler, ShikaBrown, Koekoek, Kuroiler, Sasso, and Sasso-RIR) were tested on-station, in deep litter houses at two test centres in each country for 72-weeks. Birds were fed ad libitum for the first 20 weeks, after which restricted feeding was practised. Lowest and highest hatchability of eggs set was 35% (Horro), 69% (Sasso-RIR) in Ethiopia, 60% (Kuroiler), 88% (Sasso) in Tanzania, and 42% (Funaab Alpha) – 89% (Sasso) in Nigeria. At 16 weeks, male live weights were 200%-300% higher than the local strains (Ethiopia 627g, Nigeria 793g, Tanzania 811g) except Sasso-RIR (170%), Koekoek (167%), ShikaBrown (152%), and Horro (103%). Lowest age at first egg was 119 d for ShikaBrown (Nigeria), 123 d for Sasso and Kuroiler (Tanzania), and 124 d for Sasso-RIR (Ethiopia). Highest hen-housed egg production was 192 for ShikaBrown, 166 for Sasso, and 111 for Sasso-RIR in Nigeria, Tanzania and Ethiopia, respectively. Survivability of the strains was significantly different during brooding, growing and laying. The genotype by environment interaction effect on the performance of the strains can be utilized to identify specific germplasms suitable for different agro-ecological conditions

Doing it differently: A farmer-focused, private sector-driven approach to delivering innovation that works for women in the smallholder chicken value chain

The African Chicken Genetic Gains (ACGG) program is built on five “pillars of change”. The first pillar is to make available high producing tropically adapted breeds (hpTAB). The second pillar is to determine farmer-preferred hpTAB. The third pillar is to create public-private partnerships for the delivery of services in the smallholder chicken value chain (SCVC). The fourth pillar is to ensure direct involvement of women in program decisions at all levels. The fifth pillar is the use of an innovation platform for co-creation of solutions with actors of SCVC. Implementation of ACGG in Ethiopia, Nigeria and Tanzania produced significant results in: breed testing by 6,348 smallholders in their own system; chick brooding by 20 mother units; access to finance/markets through the formation of 60 cooperatives and their linkage with microfinance institutions, aggregators and processors; mainstreaming poultry vaccination programs by policy changes that allow use of community animal health workers (CAHW) in Nigeria that previously did not authorize them; opportunities for government livestock regulators to connect with SCVC actors in the villages. ACGG has contributed to the methodology for addressing the challenges and underlining the opportunities and prospects for partnerships between smallholder and commercial poultry in order to improve livelihood of women in the rural communities and the growth of the African economy

Understanding the Entry Points for Improving the Smallholder Chicken Production in sub-Saharan Africa

A baseline survey involving 3,714 poultry keeping households (PHH) in 220 villages across five agro-ecological zones was conducted in three countries: Ethiopia (ET), Nigeria (NG) and Tanzania (TZ). The objective was to characterize the smallholder chicken production system and the socio- economic status of PHH. Data were analysed for the gender and age of the household heads, gender of respondents, sources of income, asset ownership, and agro-ecological location of PHH. The results show that 23% (20% ET, 26% NG and 21% TZ) of the PHH had a female as head. Crops, livestock and poultry were the main sources of income for ET and TZ while, in Nigeria, crops, trading and services were the main sources. The contribution of livestock to household income in Ethiopia (38.5%) was higher than in Tanzania (15.6%). More than 70% of PHH had adequate food in the last 12 months (85% ET, 70% NG and 89% TZ). Chicken meat consumption per PHH was 2.9 birds in 3 months (1.8 ET, 4 NG and 3 TZ), while egg consumption was 17 eggs in 3 months (22 ET, 14 NG, 14.6 TZ). The average flock size was 22 (9 ET, 30 NG, 27 TZ) and egg production was 10 eggs per clutch. The PHH desire were to have birds with good physical appearance, large body size and fast growing in cocks and high egg production and hatchability in hens. Information from the survey informed the design and implementation of the longitudinal study