DIAGNOSTIC STUDY OF SEMI-INTENSIVE BROILER PRODUCTION SYSTEM IN ASWAN. ..

A single visit questionnaire-based survey was performed to characterize semi-intensive broiler production system in Aswan governorate. Findings revealed that according to the flock size of broiler, the semi-intensive system of broiler production involves two subsystems: the first is Small-scale and the second is Medium-scale. The most of broiler producers (55.17% and 75.41%) range between 31-49 years (middle aged collection) in small and medium semi-intensive sub-systems, respectively. The main strain was Sasso chicken (44.83 %) and Cobb & Ross (47.54%) in the small and medium scale semi-intensive subsystem, respectively. Flock size average was 2204.42 and 4888.30 for the aforementioned subsystems in that order. Increasing income was the main purpose of rearing under the small-scale (79.31%) and medium-scale (52.46%) subsystems. Most of farmers used concentrated ration under the medium-scale (86.89%) and small-scale (72.41%) systems. Most of the broiler housing were separate from the farmers’ homes being 86.21% under the small-scale and 70.49% under the medium- scale. Wood sawdust is the most widespread bedding material in broiler houses being 96.55and 93.44 % under the small-scale and medium scale subsystems, respectively. Around 55.56 and 54.24% of the respondents prefer chicken meat for its good taste under the previous subsystems. Most of consumers (62.07%) buy live birds and slaughtered in front of them under the small-scale subsystem however, the majority (47.54%) of the respondents under the medium-scale subsystem prefer buying chilled chickens. The majority of the consumers around 82.76% and 75.41% prefer Baladi chickens either for its good taste (58.33%) or because its odorless (65.22%, Has a good smell) under the small and medium subsystems, respectively.