Exotic chicken production performance, status and challenges in Ethiopia

Oultry is the largest group of livestock species in the world in which chickens largely dominate the fl ock composition. The poultry sector in Ethiopia can be characterized into three major production systems based on selected parameters like breed, fl ock size, housing, feeding, health, technology, bio-security and others. These are large scale commercial, small scale commercial and village poultry production systems. The majority of chicken production systems remain as village production which consists of the indigenous breeds widely. Attempts have been made to introduce different exotic poultry breeds to small holder farming systems of Ethiopia to improve the existing low performance of indigenous chickens. T