The Impact of the Seasonal Variation and Geographical Location (GL) on Fertility and Hatchability of the Native Libyan Chicken

Abstract

This study aims to determine the effects of the seasonal variation and eggs sources on the fertility and the hatchability performance of the native chicken that is widely breed at the three agro-ecological regions located at Al Jabal Al Akhdar, Eastern Libya. A total of 1200 eggs were collected as 600 eggs in summer and 600 eggs at winter equally from the three selected regions (Darna (200), Al Beida (200) and Kharroba (200) for each season. The quantitative traits studied in the current trial were egg weight , fertility and hatchability percentage , mortality rate as well as the early, medium and late embryonic death. The findings of this study showed that at summer and winter seasons there are no significance differences in the fertility %, early, medium and late embryonic death % while both hatchability % and the overall embryonic death showed significant differences (P<0.05). It was clearly observed that the late embryonic death % was higher than the early embryonic death in both seasons. The results revealed that the hatchability was significant decreased at summer season (59.33±4.30) compared with 79.16±4.6 at winter season. Fertility and hatchability percentages showed significant differences (P<0.05) at the three geographical studied regions