Naked Birds may have market advantage, Rehovot professor Says

Featherless broilers may soon enter the market because of their various advantages over their covered counterparts.

This is the conclusion of Professor Avigdor Cahaner of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Rehovot, Israel. Cahaner, who led the project, explained, "This is not a genetically modified chicken. It comes from a natural breed whose characteristics have been known for 50 years. I am just transferring that to fast growing broiler chickens. It's a normal chicken except for the fact it has no feathers."

The scientists also hope the new breed will grow faster because it won't need to use energy to grow feathers and that will would also cause the chicken itself to grow larger.

After five years of intensive selection work and commercial trials Cahaner says he now has a bird that can be kept in hot climates without suffering from heatstress and poor performance. The birds prove to more resistant to heat, show less health and skin problems and require less feed to produce more and better quality meat.

Another obvious advantage is that processors do not need feather pluckers, and an environmental plus, will also have less waste.

Source: Naked birds may have market advantage. worldpoultry.net (March 2007[FullText]