Characterization of morphological, reproductive, and productive performances of Mugellese breed: an update of knowledge

The recovery, safeguarding, and valoriza-tion of autochthonous poultry breeds may contribute toward the preservation of animal biodiversity and utili-zation of marginal lands that otherwise offer little agricul-tural or industrial value. A key strategy in promoting local breeds involves the characterization of morphologi-cal traits and productive performances, which are influ-enced by the breed's genetic make-up as well as its environment. The Mugellese breed is an Italian local poul-try breed originating in the Mugello area of north-east Tuscany. It is characterized by frugality, resilience and resistance to disease, cold, and heat stress. Moreover, these birds are particularly suitable for free-range farm-ing. The Mugellese chicken is described as a dwarf breed with a medium neck, broad shoulders, fairly long and hor-izontal wings, wide, and well-developed breast (especially in the hen). Over the course of a 1-yr observation and data collection period, involving 23 breeders and 405 adult chickens, the Mugellese breed showed the following performances: 1) a hen-day egg production characterized by 2 major peaks: the first in the spring time (March -April, 65.75%), and the second in the late summer period (August-September, 51.86%); 2) high true fertil-ity values (94.35%) throughout the entire breeding sea-son; 3) a weight gain of 732.44 +/- 117.06 g and a feed conversion ratio of 3.94 +/- 2.42 at an age of 140 d; 4) a slaughter yield of 77.80% (+/- 3.91); v) a respective pro-tein, fat, and mineral content in the yolk and albumen were: 27.21 +/- 4.21 g, 57.77 +/- 1.03 g and 3.47 +/- 0.40 g per 100 g of yolk; and 82.50 +/- 0.57 g, 0.12 +/- 0.01 g and 5.43 +/- 0.34 g per 100 g of albumen. More data are needed to validate the data obtained in this trial.