Important Traits of the Basilan Chicken: an Indigenous Chicken of Mindanao, Philippines

Henry Rivero1, Leo Johncel Sancebutche2, Mary Grace Tambis3, Iris Neville Bulay-Og4, Dorothy Liz June Baay5, Ian Carlmichael Perez6, Jenissi Ederango7, and Neil Mar Castro8 MSU-Iligan Institute of Technology, Philippines [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]

Abstract - This paper introduces the Basilan chicken, as assumed ecotype of the Asil of Pakistan and India, and widely distributed throughout Southeast Asia and in Mindanao, as an important breed for future consideration for livestock studies. The biological characteristics of the indigenous chicken have been noted and compared among four geographically distant groups within a small regional setting. A collection of representative chickens putatively of the same Basilan stocks from four provinces was established. The question whether the pure Basilan stock distributed in the entire island of Mindanao originated from the Basilan Island was answered by cluster analysis of the ten external phenotypic characters. The relatedness based on presence and absence of the tested phenotypes of the Basilan chickens from four geographically distant provinces of Surigao (in Eastern Mindanao), Agusan (in the CARAGA region), Lanao (in Northern Mindanao), and Basilan (in Western Mindanao), was examined for comparison including the hepatic, gonad, and hematologic traits, the gut microbial profiles, and the blood lipid conditions. The baseline information on the distribution of the Basilan chickens all over Mindanao supports the idea that the phenotypic traits of the feather, skin, and pigmentations in different parts of Basilan can be used initially as basis without the molecular aspects, wherein, the Surigao and Lanao stocks showed unshared character such as the red skin of the breast region, while the Agusan stocks did not show any common feather traits such as the white spots and the greenish tone. The Lanao stock, on the other hand, shared 90% of the traits of Surigao stock but not with the presumed pure Basilan, and only 10% with the Agusan stock. Moreover, the male and female microbial profiles were dominated by Micrococcus spp. and Staphylococcus spp., specifically Staphylococcus aureus which are great significance for adaptability to the present environments. The semen quality and the hepatic and hematologic status of the indigenous chicken were all noted to be within the expected normal range. All these observations on Basilan chicken remain to be interesting subjects for future physiologic studies with importance to epidemiologic and other animal health applications.

Keywords - Animal Biology, Gut Microbes, Hematology, Livestock, Native Chicken

Remark: The full paper may be found in www.inrit2014.com

The Fourth International Congress on Interdisciplinary Research and Development, 30 - 31 May 2014, Thailand 27.1