Performance and resilience of poultry in Thailand

The layer chicken industry is an important sector of livestock production in Thailand because of its link to household income generation, employment generation and foreign exchange earnings. Exportation of eggs and egg product generates over 1,170 million of Thai baht ($AU 39 million) foreign income annually after 2009. However, outbreaks of exotic diseases through the importation of exotic strains of poultry had negative economic impacts on the industry. This has forced the egg industry of Thailand to develop a sustainable layer industry based on breeds and strains that have high survival rate under the harsh climatic conditions in Thailand and simultaneously maintain commercially viable productivity. Rhode Island Red (RIR) and White Plymouth Rock (WPR) breeds were imported in 1944 and maintained under existing poultry management conditions in Thailand, having been identified as the prime genetic resources to build a sustainable poultry industry in Thailand. Since 2004, a structured genetic improvement programme has been implemented to improve the productivity of these two breeds and their crosses, while maintaining a high survival rate (>90%) under the existing backyard poultry management conditions in Thailand. Preliminary analyses reveal that the performances of the newly developed strains, especially for egg production, were similar to that of the exotic breeds in Thailand. Survivability under tropical poultry management conditions is a trait that describes resilience of laying hens. The survival rate of the newly developed strains under backyard poultry management conditions in Thailand were 97.5%. This survival rate of the newly developed strains was higher than the survival rates of indigenous chicken under similar conditions. This implies that the newly developed strains could reduce over reliance on the importation of commercial layer birds and thereby, reduce the risk of introducing exotic poultry diseases which jeopardise the sustainability of poultry production in Thailand.