The Village Chicken and Disease Control

Abstract

Village chickens account for the majority of chicken production in Africa. In contrast to the industrialised production existing in the large urban areas, village chicken flocks usually comprise between 5 and 20 birds. A similar situation exists in Asia. An increase in the productivity of village chickens can help stabilise the village economy, providing a localised food source and thus contributing to slowing down the movement of people from the country to cities. Thus it is wrong to think of the support of village chicken production as merely an intermediate stage before the development of fully industrialised production. It is rather a sustainable alternative. In some industrialised countries, such as Switzerland, there is already a reaction against industrial poultry production methods, and legislation is being introduced to make it less intensive. Another factor is the generally perceived superior taste of the village chicken, as opposed to its industrial counterpart, whose taste can often reflect feed components such as fishmeal. In Morocco, for example, this is reflected in the price of the village chicken which is twice that of the industrial broiler.  The village chicken production system deserves to be considered on its own merit