a naked chicken does not sort of look right,
but apart from the obvious, ease of plucking, they have a few other advantages over their feathered cousins, in warm climates chickens in commercial establishments overheat, meaning expensive coolers have to be used to keep them cool, with no feathers the chicken keep cool, saving huge amounts of energy to run the chillers,
Israeli geneticist and poultry breeding expert Avigdor
Cahaner is the man who created this featherless breed, although some claim that
he resorted to some unnatural and unethical genetic modifications, Cahaner has
repeatedly clarified that he only did it by selectively crossing a breed with a
naturally bare neck with a regular broiler chicken. “This is not a genetically
modified chicken, but a natural chicken whose characteristics date back over 50
years,” the Hebrew University of Jerusalem professor said,
created in the early 2000s, Avigdor Cahaner’s naked chickens
got a lot of attention both for their unusual appearance and the touted
benefits of the breed, which included, lower feed consumption and faster growth
rate, but it is not all good news, the lack of feathers makes them more
susceptible to parasites, mosquito attacks, skin diseases, and when kept
outside sunburns and temperature variations, and for a number of reasons the
naked birds have never really caught on, a study by Agriallis Magazine has concluded that the
acceptance rate of featherless chickens by consumers “will not be successful
due to fact of fear of hormonal usage, unusual animals, fear on health impact”, but I wonder how the consumer would know if it was a bald chicken, when it was slapped
on their plate or popped into a bun?
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