Egg and meat production performances of two varieties of the local Ardennaise poultry breed: silver black and golden black

The Ardennaise breed is emblematic of the Belgian poultry diversity. We compared two varieties of the breed, the golden black and the silver black. The comparison encompassed: (i) the morphology of adult birds, (ii) the growth, carcass characteristics and meat quality of broilers 22 weeks old, (iii) the laying rate during 52 weeks and the egg quality. Significant differences were observed in the size of mature males and females: body weight, diameter and length of the tarsus, size of the comb and wattles. The two varieties did not differ concerning the carcass and meat quality traits. The golden black has a higher laying rate and a higher yolk / albumen ratio, but lays lighter eggs. It could be interesting to complete this study by molecular markers analysis to evaluate the degree of genetic diversity between the two varieties.