Poultry

• Poultry are a major source of high-quality protein throughout the world
• Chicken meat gained significant popularity among consumers because it is relatively cheaper, low in fat, and faces few religious and cultural restrictions
• Broiler chickens have one of the lowest farmgate prices out of all livestock and poultry products reared in commercial farms. An average farmgate price of a broiler chicken does not exceed PhP 100.00 per kilo
• The chicken broiler (and egg production) industry is the most progressive animal enterprise in the Philippines today

  
• Duck is a common food in Asia and a lucrative livestock industry in the Philippines because of its egg
• The most important duck products are balut (boiled incubated duck's egg), salted egg, century egg
• Biology of poultry species

  • Absence of teeth
  • Presence of feathers
  • Skeletal and muscular requirements for flight
  • Presence of internal testes in the male
  • Adaptations for egg laying in the female
• Poultry reproduction


  1. Exposed to day lengths (e.g. 14 hours of light, 10 hours of darkness) for photostimulation

  2. Increased calcium concentration in feed to meet egg production needs and allow for calcium storage in medullary bone

  
• Artificial insemination


  Used in poultry industry due to size difference between male and female and potential for male to damage female during mating
• Sexing poultry or gender identification

  Looking at differences in feather colors due to sex-linked genes
• Secondary sex characteristics in poultry

  • Comb, wattle, and spurs in roosters
  • Blue wattle and snood in male turkeys
• Forced or induced molting

  Management technique to increase number and size of eggs by causing egg production to temporarily cease
• Caponization


  Removal of testes or castration of male chickens to improve meat quality
• Chicken genome is well characterized, has been sequenced, and has 1.2 billion base pairs
• Chickens have 78 (39 pairs) chromosomes, turkeys have 82 (41 pairs) chromosomes, sex chromosomes are ZZ in males and ZW in females
• Systems of poultry production

  • Commercial large-scale
  • Traditional village scavenging
  • Semicommercial
  • Alternate (free range, organic)

  
• Central Luzon was the top producer of chicken with 151.97 thousand metric tons, liveweight or 32.7 percent share to the total chicken production during the reference quarter

  
• The PHILIPPINE POULTRY BROILER INDUSTRY ROADMAP 2022-2040 describes and analyzes factors affecting the poultry broiler sector and support the proposed roadmap for the industry

  
• The roadmap aims to create an inclusive, stakeholder-crafted poultry broiler industry roadmap focused on the commercial broiler industry but also recognizing backyard and native/hybrid chicken

  
• Broiler farm classification


  • Integrators (at least 20,000 birds per harvest, integrated operations)
  • Non-integrators (at least 20,000 birds per harvest, buy DOCs and feeds)
• Broiler chicken product forms

  • Whole
  • Cut-up
  • Deboned
  • Marinated
  • Cooked
  • Frozen
  • Canned

  
• For further reading, you may access the Philippine Broiler Industry Road Map 2022-2040

  
• Types of chicken comb

  • Single
  • Rose
  • Pea
• Chicken color varieties


  • Self-coloured (black, white, red, buff, blue)
  • Barred and cuckoo
  • Columbian and belted
  • Duckwing
  • Laced
  • Pencilled
  • Mottled, spangled, mille fleur
  • Black-tailed
  • Black-breasted
  • Other (silver blue, salmon, splash)
• Poultry breeds


  • Egg-type (Leghorn, Minorca, Wyandotte)
  • Meat-type (Cochin, Jersey Giant, Langshan, Cornish)
  • Dual-purpose (Australorp, Plymouth Rock, Kabir, New Hampshire, Rhode Island Red)

  
• New Hampshire


  • American breed of chicken
  • Medium-large size
  • Reddish buff in color
  • Comb is single and five-pointed
  • Earlobes are a long oval in shape and wattles are fairly large; all these are red, as is the face
  • Beak is a reddish brown or horn color
  • Eyes are bay
  • Legs and feet are yellow with reddish-brown overtones
  • Hens lay approximately 220 brown eggs per year, with an average weight of about 55 g
• Rhode Island Red


  • American breed of domestic chicken
  • It is the state bird of Rhode Island
  • Plumage of the traditional Rhode Island red ranges from a lustrous deep red to almost black; the tail is mostly black
  • Comb may be either single or rose-comb; it is vivid red, as are the earlobes and wattles
  • Beak is a reddish horn color
  • Eyes are reddish bay
  • Feet and legs are yellow, often with some red on the toes and sides of the shanks
  • The traditional dual-purpose "old-type" Rhode Island Red lays 200–300 brown eggs per year, and yields rich-flavored meat
• Sussex


  • British breed of dual-purpose chicken
  • Originates in the historic county of Sussex, in south-east England
  • Among the oldest of British chicken breeds
  • Graceful with a long, broad, flat back; a long and straight breastbone; wide shoulders; and a rectangular build
  • Tail is held at a 45 degree angle from the body
  • Eyes are red in the darker varieties but orange in the lighter ones
  • Comb is single
  • Earlobes are red and the legs and skin white in every variety
  • Hens lay some 180–200 tinted eggs per year; some layer strains may give up to 250
• Orpington


  • British breed of chicken
  • Bred in the late nineteenth century by William Cook of Orpington, at that time in Kent in south-east England
  • Intended to be a dual-purpose breed, to be reared both for eggs and for meat, but soon became exclusively a show bird
  • Curvy shape with a short back and U-shaped underline, and a small head
  • Medium single comb
  • The down from the body covers most of the legs
• Bantams


  • Small variety of fowl, usually of chicken or duck
  • A true bantam chicken is naturally small and has no large counterpart
  • Derives from the name of the seaport city of Bantam in western Java, Indonesia
• True Bantam Breeds


  • American Game bantam
  • Bearded d' Anvers
  • Bearded d' Uccle
  • Booted bantam
  • Dutch bantam
  • Nankin
  • Rosecomb
  • Sebright
  • Serama
• Miniature Bantams


  • Orpington
  • Polish
  • Brahma
  • Plymouth Rock
• Developed Bantams


  • Belgian
  • Pekin (Cochin)
  • Japanese
• Barbu d'Uccle or Belgian d'Uccle


  • Belgian breed of bearded bantam chicken
  • First bred in the town of Uccle on the outskirts of Brussels, in central Belgium, in the early years of the 20th century
  • One of 11 Belgian true bantam breeds
• Silkies


  • Also known as the Silky or Chinese silk chicken
  • Breed of chicken named for its atypically fluffy plumage, which is said to feel like silk and satin
  • All Silkies have black or bluish skin, bones and grayish-black meat
• Sebright


  • British breed of bantam chicken
  • Named after Sir John Saunders Sebright, who created it as an ornamental breed by selective breeding in the early 19th century
• Nankin


  • British bantam breed of chicken
  • South-east Asian origin, and is among the oldest bantam breeds
  • Yellowish buff colour, and the name is thought to derive from the colour of nankeen cotton from China
• Rosecomb


  • Named for its distinctive comb
  • They are poor egg layers and not suited for meat production
• Rumpless


  • Characterised by caudal dysplasia, the absence of the pygostyle or caudal appendage – the "parson's nose"
  • This is the result of inheritance of an autosomal dominant trait
  • Some breeds include: the Araucana or Rumpless Araucana of South America; the Belgian Barbu de Boitsfort, Barbu de Grubbe and Barbu d'Uccle bantams; the Japanese Uzurao
• Onagadori


  • Historic Japanese breed of chicken
  • Characterised by an exceptionally long tail
  • Bred in the 17th century in Kōchi Prefecture, on Shikoku island in southern Japan
  • Was designated a Japanese National Natural Treasure in 1952
  • Comb is single, the eyes are a reddish brown, and the ear-lobes are white