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KERALA AGRICULTURAL UNIVERSITY
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Athulya Surpassed Random Sampling Performances Tests
Outperforming all the competitors, ILM 90, a promising strain cross of KAU,
christened as Athulya emerged as number one in successive Random Sampling
Performance Tests (RSP).
A layer breeding centre of All India Co-ordinated Research Project was
established in KAU at Mannuthy with the objective to develop a commercial layer
with an average yield of 270 eggs of standard size during 500 days with less
than one per cent laying house mortality per month. This centre is assigned to
work with two strains of White Leghorn viz. IWP and IWN through pureline
selection.
In the year 1990, this centre came out with a promising strain cross 'ILM 90'
for commercial exploitation, which was later christened as Athulya by KAU and
popularized throughout the state.
Outperforming all other competitors in the Bangalore Random Sample Layer Testing
(RSLT) 1992-93, ILM 90 emerged as number one with its outstanding performance of
280 eggs Hen Day Egg Production (HDEP) and 52.8g egg weight. It has participated
in subsequent RSLTs at different centres with consistent results. During
2001-'02 also this centre has enrolled in RSLT at Bangalore and Bhubaneswar. Of
which the preliminary results are set out from Bangalore Random Sample Poultry
Performance Testing (RSPPT) centre recently.
In cages, ILM 90 recorded very good production in terms of HDEP (284.70 eggs),
which is only around 19 eggs lesser than that of the competitor ranked first. It
is noteworthy that the egg weight of ILM 90 in cages is reasonably high (57.05g)
than all other competitors placed above in egg production. In terms of egg
weight (in cages), ILM 90 is second best among all the entrants. Notwithstanding
its good egg size, the feed efficiency exhibited by ILM 90 (1.96 kg/per dozen
eggs) is also appealing.
In deep litter, ILM 90 has been ranked first among the government entries,
scoring 288.08 eggs on hen day basis with the average egg weight of 57.0 g,
which is the highest among all Govt. entries. While the feed efficiency is well
matching with other best per-formers, the feed consumption per bird per day is
perhaps the lowest in case of ILM 90. With respect to HDEP, ILM 90 recorded
around 288 eggs as against 295 of BV300, a commercial giant that constitutes
more than 90% of the commercial egg producing stock in India.
It is also obvious that ILM 90 has performed consistently well both in cage and
deep litter unlike many other entrants, which performed well either in deep
litter or in cage house. It is true with HH 260 of CPBF, Bangalore and RW of
CPBF, Mumbai.
ILM 90 exhibited better potential and surpassed all other entrants of AICRP
counterparts. Among all the four products of AICRP viz., ILM 90 from KAU,
Mannuthy, ILI 80 & BC-(1) from IVRI, Izatnagar, ILR 90 Jubilee of ANGRAU,
Hyderabad, ILM 90 displayed better capability and proved its superiority in all
the traits with thumping margin.
It has also bettered its standing record both in terms of egg number and egg
weight (the previous record was 280 eggs HDEP and 52.8g egg weight). In general,
it emerged topper in a few traits and finished very close in rest of the traits.
Dr. K. Narayanankutty, Senior Scientist, AICRP on Poultry, Mannuthy and his team
of Scientists and staff have reaffirmed their resolve for a disciplined hard
work in the years to come.