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Sonali chicken

Sonali is a Bangladesh-developed dual-purpose chicken cross produced by mating a Rhode Island Red (RIR) male with a Fayoumi female. The cross was released in 1986 by the Bangladesh Livestock Research Institute and has since become the dominant semi-intensive chicken in Bangladesh, with the genotype now widely supplied as day-old chicks across eastern and southern India.

Origin and distribution

Sonali was bred to occupy the gap between intensive commercial broiler genetics and the slow-growing village chicken. Around 150 million Sonali day-old chicks were produced in Bangladesh in 2010, representing roughly 35% of the country's broiler-and-layer market at the time. In India, hatcheries such as Daulat supply Sonali chicks to backyard and semi-intensive rearers in West Bengal, Assam, Tripura, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, often through self-help groups and NGO networks.

Morphology

The bird inherits the reddish-brown plumage of Rhode Island Red overlaid with the patterned colour and small frame of Fayoumi. Body conformation is intermediate between the commercial broiler and the typical village chicken — slimmer than a broiler, blockier than a country bird.

Performance

Sonali grows substantially faster than indigenous village chicken while retaining the meat texture, dark-yolked egg and visual appearance that "desi" markets demand. Hens lay 160-200 eggs a year — well above country-chicken (Country Chicken Nattu Kodi) output but below commercial layer (Layer Chicken Bv 380) levels. Table weight of around 1.0-1.5 kg is reached in five to six months in semi-intensive conditions, again outperforming country breeds at comparable input cost.

Husbandry

Sonali is reared on deep litter (Deep Litter System) in open-sided sheds (Open Poultry Shed) with night confinement and daytime free range. Feed is typically self-mixed (Self Mixed Poultry Feed) on a low-cost grain-and-kitchen-waste base for the slower part of the cycle, with a higher-protein starter ration during the brooding window (Brooding Chicks). Routine vaccination against Newcastle disease (Ranikhet Newcastle Disease) and other major poultry pathogens is essential because the slower grow-out exposes birds to a longer disease window than commercial broiler grow-out (Broiler Chicken).

See also: Kadaknath.

References

  1. Can the Sonali Chicken Crossbreed Improve the Poultry Industry in Bangladesh? The Poultry Site.
  2. Egg Production Performance of RIR x Fayoumi and Fayoumi x RIR Crossbreed. Livestock Research for Rural Development.