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| Journalists were there to look at a new type of chicken created by UMM lecturers (Photo: Lintang PR). |
The Indonesian local chicken has great potential to face the global market. Especially considering that the local chicken eggs have a high selling value compared to other egg-laying chickens. However, the high demand is unbalanced by the local production of local chickens. Concerning this matter, Ir. Suyatno, M.Si, as a lecturer in animal husbandry at the University of Muhammadiyah Malang (UMM), created an original gene for super-laying local chickens to respond to the demand for egg-laying chicken production.
He designed a crossbreeding of native chickens from several regions in East Java to create a new strain that has advantages in producing eggs. “There are four types of chickens from several regions in East Java that are crossbred, such as white local chickens, red striated local chickens, ranupane local chickens, and wareng,” he said.
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The research was also presented in his dissertation on May 21st, 2024, as a requirement to obtain a doctoral degree. Furthermore, the main focus of this research is the selection and regulation of mating lines to create a new strain of super-laying native chicken. The process uses a combination of several breeding systems, such as cross-breeding, reciprocal cross-breeding, and outbreeding. As well as a proper selection program such as three-month-old body weight selection. The final is a new strain of laying hen named UMMChick.
In addition, breeding is a system or activity to maintain the purity of strains in animals or plants while improving their quality and production. The ultimate goal is to produce a local animal population with good egg production rates. During the breeding program, Suyatno focused on egg production to produce new strains. As a result, a new strain of local chicken was found that produces 50%–60% of the eggs produced by local chickens in general.
“We guarantee that the ‘UMMChick’ strain is good and has potential because the genetic source is still maintained and widely maintained in East Java,” he added.
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Furthermore, the chicken strains that have been created can produce eggs and can be sold under the trademark 'Eggnic' or organic eggs. This can be one of UMM's business fields to develop because of the high demand for native chicken eggs.
Meanwhile, one of the dissertation examiners, Prof. Dr. Ir. Asmah Hidayati, M.P, IPM, expected that the research created by Suyatno would not stop here. However, the development of new local chicken strains with higher productivity is definitely needed in the future. “If we can create a strain with 100% productivity, it will be even better. This will also be needed by the wider community,” he concluded. (tri/wil/put)
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