Comparative study of growth performance, meat quality and haematological parameters of three-way crossbred chickens with reciprocal F1 crossbred chickens in a subtropical environment

A total of 2000 unsexed day-old chicks of each three-way (White Leghorn male×F1 female) [Fayoumi male×Rhode Island Red (RIR) female] crossbred and reciprocal F1 crossbred (RIR×Fayoumi) chickens were obtained from the hatchery of the Poultry Research Institute, Rawalpindi. The chickens of each breed were divided into five groups as replicates under a completely randomised design, so that there were 400 chickens in each replicate. The birds were maintained on a deep litter system for a period of 20 weeks. The results revealed that the average day-old weight was highest in Rural Leghorn (RLH), intermediate in Fayoumi male×RIR female (FIRI) and lowest in RIR male×Fayoumi female (RIFI) chickens. The RLH and FIRI chickens consumed more feed and gained maximum (p<0.05) weight gain than that of RIFI crossbred chickens at all ages of the growing phase. The poor (p<0.05) feed conversion was observed in RIFI and better feed conversion was recorded in FIRI and RLH crossbred chickens. The RLH three-crossbred chickens had the lowest (p<0.05) mortality than two-crossbred chickens. The highest dressing percentage was observed in FIRI (62.60) followed by RIFI (62.40%) and RLH (62.10%) chickens. The breast and thigh meat composition had non-significant (p>0.05) differences among all crossbred chickens. There were non-significant (p>0.05) differences in haematological values among all crossbred chickens. The total erythrocyte number, Hb and PCV increased with the advancement of age. However, ESR, MCV and MCH values decreased gradually with the advancement of age. It may be concluded that FIRI and RLH crossbred chickens gained better body weight than RIFI chickens with lower mortality. The three-way crossbred chickens of RLH showed better FCR and lower mortality than two-way reciprocal crossbred chickens of RIR and Fayoumi.