Abstract

The study was conducted to characterise chicken egg albumen in Indigenous Chicken (IC) phenotypes raised at Bunda College in Malawi. 200 birds collected from two Districts in Malawi, Mzimba and Lilongwe were allowed to breed within the phenotype. Ten (10) eggs from 6 IC phenotypes offspring (Naked Neck, Normal black, Kaphulusa, Spotted, crested hair and Frizzled) raised under the same management) were used for the test in laboratory analysis. In addition, the following production traits were also recorded; Number of eggs laid per hen per clutch, number of clutches per year and number of eggs hatched. For comparison purposes similar data was collected for Black Australorp. The results from the study revealed that different IC phenotypes have different protein fraction concentrations. Crested hair has higher concentrations of protein at 0.8386g/ml (p<0.005) of which, higher (0.4203g/ml) is albumin fraction. Frizzled contain medium protein and albumin quantities, the Normal black has the least concentration at 0.1915g/ml and 0.1400g/ml (p<0.005) in protein and albumin concentration, respectively. The results also show that different IC phenotypes have different productivity performance with Kaphulusa being the best IC phenotypes since it has a higher hatchability value of 71%(p<0.005)and number of eggs per clutch (14) despite having least value on the egg weight.