Increase the Progeny of Female Arab Chickens through Induction of Progesterone Hormone

Arab chickens are local chickens developed in Indonesia and used as laying hens. Because it is able to produce higher eggs than native chickens. This chicken has a blackish skin color and thinner meat, so it is not optimal when used as a broiler.

Therefore, breeders want the offspring of female arab chickens that can produce eggs. So we need an idea to look for opportunities to manipulate the sex ratio of hatched chicks.

In poultry, efforts to increase the proportion of offspring with a certain sex can be carried out on females (parents). Because it has a ZW heterogametic chromosome that affects the sex of the offspring.

While the factors that affect the allocation of the sex ratio of chicks are on the maternal steroid hormone. This steroid hormone contains the hormone progesterone which can affect the sex ratio, egg production, fertility, and the chances of chicks.

This was conveyed by drh.Iswati, M.Pt., staff of the Laboratory of Reproduction and Animal Health at the Agricultural Development Polytechnic (POLBANGTAN) Malang, through his research entitled “Production Performance, Reproductive Hormone Profile and Sex ChildRatio, after Induction of Progesterone Hormone in Parent Hens. Arab.”

She observed egg production and quality, fertility, embryo viability, hatchability, concentrations of progesterone and Luteinizing Hormone (LH) in the blood, chick sex ratio, as well as confirmation of sexing molecular, on samples of three males and 60 Arab hens. Using a completely randomized design method with three treatments, namely (1) no injection (control), (2) progesterone injection 1mg/bird, and (3) progesterone 2mg/bird, which were repeated 10 times for each treatment.

The results of the study concluded that the injection of the hormone progesterone in arab hen in the production phase caused variations in peak production. Then the concentration of progesterone in the blood of a hen has increased post-induction giving feedback positively to LH concentration. Meanwhile, the induction of the hormone progesterone at a dose of 2mg/head produced the highest female offspring as an opportunity to manipulate the sex ratio of children.

However, further research is needed on the effect of induction of the hormone progesterone with dosage and modification of the injection timing scheme in order to have a positive impact on chicken productivity. As well as evaluation of sex-specific embryonic mortality.

Iswati is listed as a student of the Doctoral Program in Animal Science, Postgraduate Program, Faculty of Animal Science, Universitas Brawijaya (Fapet UB), who has taken the final exam for her dissertation using hybrid learning, Thursday (23/9/2021). (dta)