Indigenous Chicken Breeding in Nigeria

Abstract

As far back as 1963 the indigenous chicken had been proposed as the basis of chicken breed development in Nigeria (Hill and Modebe, 1961). We are convinced that indigenous poultry breed development is a feasible proposition and should be encouraged for commercialization in Nigeria. Between 1994 and 2016 we have used 4 local chicken ecotypes, identified according to their genetic variants, based on the expression of adaptive major genes for frizzling (F); naked neck (Na) and the dwarf (dw) genes in a crossbred formation, to develop improved chicken genotypes for our rural households in Nigeria.