Morphometry, Growth and Egg Production Characteristics of Red Jungle Fowl and Non-descript Deshi Chicken of Bangladesh

Background: The Red Jungle fowl (RJf) is the progenitor of all modern chickens including non-descript deshi (ND). Therefore, the study was conducted to know the morphometry, growth and egg production characteristics of RJf and ND chicken under semi-intensive conditions. Methods: A well-structured questionnaire was used to collect the data from December 2018 to November 2019. Result: This study reveals that the ND chickens were morphometrically larger and superior for all traits compared to RJF chickens. Male birds showed comparatively higher morphometric parameters than females in both genotypes. From the weight of day-old chicks to the weight at sexual maturity, RJf chicken showed poorer results than the ND chicken, except for the age of sexual maturity, where ND chickens attained late sexual maturity. The fertility (88.76%), hatchability (76.54%), clutch size (10.56), hen-day egg production per year (52.8) and egg weight (40.70 g) were significantly higher in ND than the RJF chicken. Overall, non-descript deshi was comparatively superior to the Red Jungle fowl for productive traits.