The world’s population currently stands for 8.1 billion and expected to reach to 9.7 billion in 2050 addressing hunger will become increasingly critical. World poultry meat production reached 141 million tonnes in 2022 attained 1.9% growth than previous year. In India poultry meat production constitutes 50% of the India’s total meat production. India stands 3rd in world for Egg production and 5th in world poultry meat production. Total poultry meat production for country for 2022-23 is estimated at 4.99 MMT. Poultry breeding has been one of the most prolific advancements in the last 60-70 years. Diversified poultry includes ducks, turkeys, Japanese quail, guinea fowl, goose and pigeons Chickens contribute 90 percent of world poultry meat production, followed by turkeys with 5 percent, ducks with 4 percent and geese and guinea fowl with 2 percent. The rest comes from other poultry species. It may also include all poultry production systems other than commercial egg and broiler chicken production. Diversified poultry systems are now considered as the viable livelihood option for small and marginal farmers.
Quail farming
Japanese quail (Coturnix coturnix japonica) is a popular commercial line reared for egg and meat purpose originated from wild quail belongs to pheasant family, it has shorter incubation period of 17-18 days, reach sexual maturity at 6 months and can attain the market weight of 200-210 gram within 5 weeks . It require less floor space of around 0.20 sq.ft per bird. Its meat and egg have high nutritious value. They are more disease resistant and requires less capital and infrastructure. They were first domesticated in Japan in 1595.During the year 1974, Central Avian Research Institute, Izatnagar imported Japanese quail from Davis, California for diversification in India under UNDP-ICAR collaboration project. There are two species of quail in India; the black-breasted quail found in jungle (Coturnix coromandelica) and the brown colour Japanese quail (Coturnix coturnix japonica).There are different varieties/ species of quail available in the world; some of the popular breeds / species are Wild type (Pharaoh quail), British range, Tuxedo, Manchurian golden, English white. Central avian research institute also developed some strains like CARIUTTAM (Broiler Quail), CARIPEARL (White Egger), CARIUJJAWAL (White Breasted Quail), CARISWETA (White Feathered Quail), CARIBROWN (Brown Feathered Quail), CARISUNEHERI (Brown Feather White Breasted. TANUVAS also developed Namakkal quail – 1 : A meat-type Japanese quail strain, evolved by 4-way crossing, Namakkal gold quail : An egg-type Japanese quail strain, evolved by 5-way crossing. INSTITUTE OF POULTRY PRODUCTION AND MANAGEMENT (IPPM) also developed meat type strains like Nandanum quail 1, Nandanum quail 2, Nandanum quail 3.GADVASU, Ludhiana released three strains of Japanese quail as Punjab – I, II and III while CPDO, Northern region and CPDO, Western region have also released new strains of Japanese quail.
Breeding strategies:
Improvement of the Economic traits of the broilers and layers type quail for example body weight, carcass traits, Feed conversation ratio (FCR), annual egg production, livability, hatchability, fertility etc. Four quail lines viz. MTQ (meat type quail), GLQ (German line quail), SLQ (Synthetic line) and KLQ (Korean line quail) were developed from these genetic bases and were selected for improvement .
Mass selection: Performance testing of the potential parent individuals and then selecting as parents those with records closest to the objective. It is appropriate for characters with high heritability like body weight at 4 weeks of age. CARI developed CQ2 AND CQ3 lines following mass selection for 16 and 9 generations respectively. Example CARIUTTAM meat type quail strain.
Two stage selection: birds weighing more than average body weight at 3 weeks are selected and tested for egg production and hens were selected for higher yield and body weight. Example CARI PEARL Korean type quail selection for 10 generations.
Reciprocal recurrent selection: breeding procedure designed to improve the cross of two population lines from different heterotic groups by using both general and specific combining ability. Example CARIUTTAM Korean line quail developed from 6 generations of RRS.
Four way cross: double crosses, Two different single crosses are crossed to obtain desired hybrid line. Example Namakkal quail 1.
Five way cross:5 different lines are crossed to obtain superior hybrid lines. Example Namakkal gold quail.
Mating system
Paired mating: Most common type of mating system, high fertility and hatchability percentage is observed when mating ratio is 1:1 to 1:3.
Diallel mating: This is the system of mating where the crosses will be made in all possible combinations. Suppose if there are 4 strains/ families, 4 x 4 cross will be made to identify the best combining ability especially General Combining Ability.
Duck farming
Ducks (Anas platyrhynchos) descended from wild mallard ducks. Ducks occupy an important position next to chicken farming in India. The duck population in India is around 3.35 crore, contributing 3.93% of the total poultry population. Among these, desi ducks has the highest share of 88% compared with improved varieties (20th livestock census).The ducks are mostly concentrated in the eastern, coastal and southern states like Assam, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and Orissa. Important exotic duck breeds in India are White Pekin, Aylesbury, Rouven are for meat purpose, Khaki Campbell and Indian Runner for egg purpose. Pati from Assam, Maithili from Bihar and Andamani are the only indigenous breeds of ducks recognized by the Indian Bureau of Animal Genetic Resources (NBAGR), Karnal. Other non descript breeds Chara, Chemballi, Deo- Hanh, Raj- Hanh and Nageswari.found in our country.Major problem in duck rearing is that the unavailability of the germplasm.The st breeding programme in indigenous duck being undertaken in our country are very few and being documented with reference to world scenario. Crossbreeding experiment using indigenous and exotic breeds in the countries are reported in respect to growth, conformation traits, production, reproduction, carcass quality, egg quality, egg weight and feed conversion ratio. Performance of the crossbred improved in respect to different traits measured compared to the indigenous breed showing heterosis in positive direction. General combining ability, specific combining ability and reciprocal effects are found to be significant for most of the traits studied in a 3×3 diallel cross using indigenous duck of Odisha, Khaki Campbell and White Pekin. Genomic selection by best linear unbiased prediction (BLUP) for economic would give promising results. The importance of availability of quality germplasm and performance improvement through duck breeding in India is to be taken on priority. Besides this, the conservation and documentation of all the indigenous breeds and variety is need of the hour. Indigenous duck breed traits need to be explore for commercial importance.
Commercial available strains of duck
Vigova super M: It is a broiler strain of duck which is a cross of White Pekin and
Aylesbury and has its origin in Vietnam. They have high disease resistance, faster growth and good taste. It can reach up to 3- 3.5 kg body weight in 8 weeks.
Indian Runner: Originates from East India and Malaysia and is known as Penguin Ducks or Baly Soldiers. There are three varieties of IR ducks i.e. fawn & white, white and pencilled. Mature drake weigh around 1.8-2.4 kgs while duck weighs around 1.6-2.0 kgs, respectively. IR is an egg type breed and lays about 200-300 eggs per year with white egg colour.
Mating system
The desirable sex ratio for ducks is 1:6 for intensive rearing and 1:15-20 for extensive rearing system. The high heritable traits like body weight, growth rate, rate of feathering, egg weight shall be improved by individual or mass selection. Medium heritable traits like age at sexual maturity, breast width and low heritable traits like egg number, hatchability and fertility shall be improved by family selection. Individual selection may be followed for broiler breeding and family selection for layer breeding. In duck breeding, trap nesting is practically difficult to practice, so sire family selection may be practiced.
Turkey farming
Turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) domesticated over 500 years ago, native of North America got domesticated mainly for meat in different Western countries like US, UK, Canada and France. The turkey meat has specific market demands during the Christmas season and thanksgiving parties in these countries. They form almost two per cent of the total world poultry population. They are reared mainly for meat and its meat is the leanest among different domestic avian species, Turkey meat is low in fat (1%) and cholesterol than chicken and duck meat but contains essential fatty acids (polyunsaturated fatty acids) which is highly desirable for human health and consider important position after chicken and duck. Current world turkey production stands for 458 million. In India, turkey rearing is still in its infancy and it contributes around 0.05% of the total poultry population and it is nearly 4.48 lakhs in numbers (20th livestock census). Assam has the highest population of turkey followed by Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal and turkey meat is getting popular in South Indian and Northeast states. Beltsville Small White, Broad Breasted Bronze, Black, Slate, White Holland, Bourbon Red and Narragansett are the seven varieties of turkey present in the world. Among these broad breasted white (a cross between Broad breasted Bronze and Beltsville Small White) and Beltsville Small White are the exotic varieties raised in India. In Europe and western countries Nicolas select, Premium, Hybrid, B.U.T 6 are very popular But non-descriptive varieties are more popular in Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Northeast states. Central Poultry Development Organisation (Southern Region), Hessarghatta, Bangalore has made serious efforts for popularising turkey farming. CARIBLACK, CARIWHITE, CARICHITLA varieties were developed by ICAR- CARI and Nandanam turkey ( two strains) variety was developed by TANUVAS are suitable for backyard rearing with minimum inputs. India has a huge scope for rearing turkey. The natural scavenging and foraging behaviour of these birds make them more suitable for free-ranging or semi-intensive systems of rearing thus uplifting the livelihoods of rural farmers.
Breeding strategies:
Mass selection: Initially turkeys are selected for plumage colour. During 20th century they have been exploited for meat purpose through selection of Feed conversation ratio(FCR), Residual feed intake(RFI),body weight genes, reproductive genes for at least 5 generations and the correlation between them.
Selection index: selection of phenotypic and genotypic traits on the basis of the basis of balance breeding programme(reproduction, health, growth, feed efficiency ,yield) and selection index score is computed.
Pedigree selection: Common method of genetic improvement followed by Aviagen turkey breeding programme where pure lines, great grandparents are continuously selectively breed for more than six generations.Aviagen Turkeys’ gene pool includes more than 40 different turkey pure lines. Large number of traits (>30) selected in individuals for a very large population size and pedigree hatching took place by multitrait selction.
Genomic estimated by breeding value: Genomic Best linear unbiased prediction(GBLUP),where phenotypes, genotypes and pedigree records are selected as whole where an accuracy gains of 15-60% is observed.
Marker-assisted selection (MAS) :Selecting desirable individuals in a breeding scheme based on DNA molecular marker patterns based on single nucleotide polymorphism. Turkey genome consist of 1.10 billion base pairs and 5.49 million SNPs were detected.
Mating system: In intensive system generally male and female ratio is 1:4 to 1:5, while in extensive system it is 1:10 to 1:15.Majorily Artificial insemination is the best breeding method in turkeys due to their heavy weight and low fertility. Egg fertility and hatchabilty shows 10-15% better results with AI than natural mating. Generally AI in turkeys done during 3-5 pm.
Guinea fowl farming
Domestic Guinea fowl (Numida meleagris) is a native of West Africa. It gained popularity globally because of the specific taste of its meat and eggs, similar to wild game birds. Guinea fowl have good carcass yield compared to chicken, meat is lean and rich in essential fatty acids. Lays eggs with a hard eggshell with less chance of breakage are less. Different varieties of guinea fowl in the world are pearl, white, lavender, buff, buff, dundotte, coral blue, azure, royal purple, porcelain and slate.The Helmeted Guineafowl is the best known of the guinea fowl. In India three varities namely pearl, white and lavender are available. The pearl variety is the most popular and typically the one that people recognize most readily. The adults weigh over one kg. Average egg production is 55 to 100 per year, and each egg weighs 37 to 40 g. They are difficult to sex except by their call, but the adult male has larger helmet and wattles. They can be sold for meat at 14 weeks with a dressed weight of 800 g to well over one kg. GUNCARI is an improved Guinea fowl variety developed at Central Avian Research Institute,Izatnagar. Three GUNCARI varieties are Kadambari(Pearl), Chitambari(Lavender) and Swetambari(White),are mostly seasonal layers.
TANUVAS has released Nandanam Guinea Fowl – I which lays eggs round the year and so it is popular among South Indian farmers. It matures at 26 weeks and lay about 165 eggs in an year. Guinea fowl may be raised in the modern intensive system characterized by high input, good husbandry and hygiene and supply of balanced feed however this system is confined largely to Government / public sector farms. The traditional extensive system of rearing is most popular in rural areas. In semi-extensive system, birds are maintained in pens communicating with spacious well-fenced enclosures. In the traditional rearing system, the nutritional requirements of voraciously omnivorous guinea fowl are met through its catholic feeding habits; birds accept fallen grains, leaves, weeds, root-bulbs, fruits, diversified insect, fauna and flora and even carrion. Supplementary feeding, if any, usually consist of waste grains, household waste and crop residues.
Breeding strategies: In Africa there are three season of lay while in North India (IVRI) laying season begins in march and ends in September. Generally multitrait selection is taken into consideration where feed efficient traits, reproductive, disease resistance traits are selected.
Selection index: Selection on the basis of rank where all traits are given equal importance and and the best sire base population is prepared and this pedigree selection carried out for minimum three generations. This sire base population is evaluated through 2-3 phases of selection.
Whole geneomic sequencing: The whole-genome size of CARIKADAMBARI is about 1.04GB.Total number of SNPs detected 13,514,216.Maximum % of SNPs were located (48.48%) on Intronic region of genome.
RAPD and SNPs :Use of random amplified polymorphic DNA and single nucleotide polymorphism can prove milestone in increasing in the germplasm.
Mating system: Half sib mating with sire and dam ratio( 1: 5 ratio) in pen mating system. However there are lot constraints in the artificial insemination and stud mating in guinea fowls.