Pratapdhan: dual purpose coloured bird for RajAsthan
AICRP on Poultry Breeding, MPUAT, Udaipur has developed a dual purpose chicken variety to cater the needs of rural poultry keepers, recently coined as PRATAPDHAN which resembles local birds of Rajasthan. Attractive multicolour feather pattern, as rural people like coloured birds from aesthetic point of view and better looking. Because of colour plumage birds have camouflagic characters to protect themselves from predators. bBirds have longer shank length which helps in self protection from predators in backyard areas and has capacity to survive on low plane of nutrition (low and negligible input) and harsh climatic conditions. It lays brown eggs weighing around 50 g and has broody characteristic to some extent. It has fast growth rate with average adult body weight at 20 weeks of age ranged from 1478 to 3020 g in males and 1283 to 2736 g in females. The age at sexual maturity was 170 days. Pratapdhan produces 161 eggs annually, which is 274% higher than local native (43 eggs).
