The genetic quality improvement of native and local chickens to increase production and meat quality in order to build the Indonesian chicken industry
Authors: Sumantri C , Khaerunnisa I , Gunawan A 
Published: June 2020

Native and local chickens have a great effect in the development of the local chicken industry in rural communities. Local chicken industry significantly contributes to the income value of national agricultural development as well as become an important foundation in building food self-sufficient. Indonesia has a wealth of genetic resources of native and local chicken with abundant genetic diversity, but has not been managed and utilized properly. In Indonesia, local chicken agribusiness is less developed due to lack of genetic improvement and has a direct impact with the very low contribution of meat and eggs. Indonesia has a variety of genetic sources for native and local chickens spread throughout the region. Native and local chickens contribute greatly to the rural economy but their production is still limited. Despite its low productivity, native chicken production is very important for rural communities. However, they face challenges how to increase the productivity of their population, which can benefit them financially and increase food security and reach market potential. This native chicken has the characteristics of slow growth and varied egg production. The development of the potential of native chicken and related issues of food security and food independence, local chicken is suitable for this. Information on the performance and productivity of local chickens is needed for local chicken development. Potential local chickens such as pelung chickens are known as singer chickens with a large body frame. Sentul chickens are another potential local chicken, known as meat-producing chickens with good egg production. Through breeding programs (selection and crossing), increasing the productivity of meat and eggs of native chicken can be done effectively. In addition, improving the quality of local chickens can be improved through conventional feeding management. The availability of selected local chicken in accordance to market demand is still limited. To overcome the lack of selected local chicken, the Faculty of Animal Science, IPB has been developing superior local chicken breed since 2012-2018 namely IPB-D1. The up-to-date Next Generation Sequencing technology through RNA Sequencing can identify candidate genes and potential SNPs quickly, thoroughly and comprehensively, as biomarkers for increasing both productivity (egg production, growth rate, and resistant to diseases) and meat quality (tenderness, flavor, meat fiber and fatty acid composition). During the last 6 years (2012-2018), several studies have been conducted on genes related to various trais: (1) disease resistance: toll receptor-4 (TLR4), mycovirus-1 (Mx-1), natural resistance associated macrophage-1 (NRAMP-1), inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS), transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β) genes; (2) meat production: growth hormone receptor (GH-r), growth hormone secretagogue receptor (GHSR) genes; (3) meat quality: calpastatine (CAST), calpain (CAPN) and myostatin (MSTN) genes; and (4) composition of fatty acids: stearyol CoA desaturase (SCD) and salute carrier (SLC) genes. Genetic quality of native and local chickens might be improved to increase their production and meat quality in order to build the Indonesian chicken industry.