Comparative study of growth and economic performance of Fayoumi, Rhode Island Red and their reciprocal crossbred chickens

This paper was conducted to evaluate the economic and productive efficiency of two layer breeds and their crossing in Egypt. The first breed is indigenous Fayoumi, and the second is exotic Rhode Island Red (RIR). Both breeds have their different performances, and each breed was preferred over the other for some particular traits. By crossing the two breeds, the crossbreds could benefit from the strengths of the purebreds. The economic efficiency measures are used to determine the economic value for various traits and to compare the performance of purebreds and crossbreds. 480 chicks were divided into 4 groups consisting of Fayoumi, Rhode Island Red (RIR), Rhode Island Red × Fayoumi crossbred and Fayoumi × Rhode Island Red crossbred. Each genotype was divided into 3 replicates, all housed in a litter floor house up to 28 weeks of age. Economic and productive efficiency measures were calculated. On the basis of our results, it would be concluded that, RIR purebred showed the highest body weight, average daily gain and relative growth rate at 0-8th, 8th-20th, 20th-28th weeks of age. Net profit was significantly higher (P < 0.05) for Fayoumi × RIR crossbred (L.E/chicken 27.37), followed by RIR purebred (L.E/chicken 26), then Fayoumi purebred (L.E/chicken 24.48) and the lowest was RIR×Fayoumi crossbred (L.E/chicken 20.6).