i. Course Title: AS 304- POULTRY AND RABBIT PRODUCTION
ii. Course Aim:
To equip students with practical knowledge and skills of raising poultry and rabbits as small and commercial enterprises.
iii. Course Expected Learning Outcomes: At the end of the course the students shall be able to:
• Identify various breeds of poultry and rabbits.
• Perform routine husbandry practices for poultry and rabbit production (sexing of chicks/kids, individual animal identification, rearing of different classes of animals, debeaking, feeding, breeding, slaughtering of animals and carcass dressing, control of diseases, vaccination and treatment).
• Formulate feed rations for feeding different classes of chickens and rabbits
• Understand techniques of egg production in commercial layers and managing a layers farm, egg collection and grading
• Design and construct suitable houses for poultry and rabbits
• Keep, manage animal records and develop business plans for production.
iv. Course status: Core
v. Credit rating: 7 Credits
vi. Total hours spent: 70 hours
Pre-requisite: AS 101
vii. Course content:
Poultry production
Classification of poultry species. Systems of poultry management. Housing and environmental requirements. Management of poultry at different stages and production standards. Incubation and hatchery management. Classification and grading of poultry products. Factors affecting product quality. Record keeping and record management. Poultry diseases. Waste management and disposal.
Practical: identification of breeds, identification of individual animals, sexing of chicks, disease and parasite preventive measures, debeaking, egg collection and grading, rationing and feeding, weighing of animals, hatchery management, slaughtering of animals and carcass dressing. Visits to commercial poultry farms, hatchery and slaughter facilities.
Rabbit Production:
Rabbit classification and breeds of rabbits. Production characteristics of rabbits and problems of rabbit production in developing countries. Rabbit housing, buildings and hutches. Equipment in rabbit house. Selection of breeding herd and breeding procedure. Management practices of rabbits at different stages. Physiology of digestion, caecotrophy and its importance, feed types and feeding procedure of rabbits. Common diseases and their control. Records and record keeping.
Practical: Identification of rabbit breeds. Identification of individual animals, sexing. Diseases diagnosis and parasites, preventive measures, sanitation. Feed types, rationing and feeding, weighing of animals, pregnancy diagnosis, slaughtering of animals and carcass dressing. Observations on types and design of rabbit houses.
viii. Teaching and learning activities
Teaching activities
Teaching activities will involve lectures, tutorials and field work practical.
Learning activities
Learning activities will involve performing take home assignments, seminar presentations and independent reading. Students will be encouraged to do independent study by reading relevant reference books, teaching manuals, scientific papers and other learning materials. In addition, farm visits will be made.
ix. Assessment methods:
A variety of coursework assessments will be done and these include take home assignments, tutorials, seminar presentations and practical reports. There shall be written theory and practical tests given at appropriate time during the semester. In addition, there shall be an end of semester University examination.
x. Reading List:
McNitt, J. I., Lukefahr, S.D., Cheeke, P.R., Patton, N.M. (2013). Rabbit Production. 9th ed. CABI. 314p
Daghir, N.J (2008). Poultry Production in Hot Climates. 2nd Edition CABI International 2008. ISBN-13: 978 1 84593 258 9. Website: www.cabi.org
Whiteman, B.D. (2004). Domestic Rabbits and their Histories. Breeds of the World. Leathers Publishing. 456p.
Niles, W. (2009). Tropical Rabbit Production. A Guide to Raising Rabbits with Few Resources. ECHO Technical Note.
Ronald N. and Penman S. (1990). A Manual for Small Scale Rabbit Production. FAO. Oxford & BH Pub. Co.
Leeson, S. and Summers, J.D. (2008). Commercial Poultry Nutrition. 3rd Edition. Published by Nottingham University Press. ISBN 978-1-904761-78-5