Abstract:
Poultry plays an important role in poverty alleviation,
nutrition and food security. Poultry are one of farm
animals that can be raised under different husbandry
conditions which ranging from scavenging to closed
system. The scavenging system which is the major
production system in the country is composed of chicken
of different age and sex in the same environment. These
birds are allowed to scavenge for available field
resources in their area freely. Based on the level of
biosecurity poultry production system can be
categorized in to four sectors. Sector one is known of its
high biosecurity level and use of sophisticated
technology while in sector two the biosecurity measures
can be moderate to high. The above two are commercial
in characteristics. Sector three is those commercial
production systems with low to minimal biosecurity
measures implementation and products from this sector
may enter live bird markets. The last sector is village/
backyard production which comprises more than 95% Ethiopian poultry production system. This production
system is characterized by minimum to no biosecurity
measures, poor housing, poor management and poor
availability of veterinary service in the areas. A low
emphasis was also given to the sector due to loss
occurred during periodic occurrence of an outbreak and
poor productivity of the chickens.
Poor biosecurity measures and improper management
can be source of loss in poultry production system. The
loss can be due to direct loss of the bird or due to poor
productivity of improperly managed chicken. Health and
productivity of chickens can be improved by good
feeding, implementation of biosecurity measures and
good management.
