Received: 26-10-2015 / Accepted: 14-01-2016
The multi-toes chicken breed is a precious genetic resource associated with livelihood and cultureof several ethnic minoritiesin the National Park of Xuan Son, Tan Son District, Phu Tho Province. This study was conducted on60 households raising these chickens in two communes of Xuan Son and Xuan Dai. A sample of 200 adult chickens was phenotypically characterized based on the feather colors, the combshapeand toes. The multi-toes broilers (60 chickens/herd, 30 malesand 30 females) were fed fora 12-week periodto evaluategrowth performance and ten were used for carcass quality assessment. The result shows that the multi-toes chickens possessed unique phenotype, most of them had 6 to 8 toes (99%), chickens withs with 5 or 9 toes were rare(0.5% to 1%). 80% of hens had 5 to 7 toes and 9.84% had 8 toes. No henswith 9 toes wereobserved. Plumage colors of the roosters are mainly brown-red (95%). The predominant plumage colors in hens were yellow (56%)andgrey (20%). Hens of this breed reached sexual maturity at about 28 weeks of age with 1.25kg body weight. Each hens laid averagely 12.06 eggs/broodwith 6.3 broods/year and 75.98 eggs/hen/year, with the average egg weight of 39.70 g. The weight of 12 week-old broiler was 1142g.The carcass yield was 68%, while thigh meat and breast meat accounted for 18% and 17%, respectively. The meat quality is excellent, very sweettasteand deliciousandthe selling price is 2.5-3.0 times more expensive than that of other chicken breeds.