Kitchen

[katkitty]

Here's part of a report from the World Poultry magazine:
'In 1954, the American researchers Abbott and Asmundson found several featherless
mutants among New Hampshire chicks that hatched at the University of California
at Davis. The mutation, named Scaleless, has been bred and maintained since then in
Davis and in several other research institutions.
The Scaleless line, like its New Hampshire origin, is, according to Prof. Cahaner a good egg-producer but with a small body and not much of a meal.
Prof. Cahaner started 12 years ago to pursue his interest in the naked neck and frizzle genes that reduce the feather coverage of chickens, and a few years ago he came across the idea of
using the scaleless mutant to breed a completely featherless broiler. In an interview
with World Poultry, he said that the idea was to backcross the small scaleless chickens
into a large, fast-growing broiler line in order to develop, featherless broiler chickens
which grow as fast as the commercial feathered-covered broilers that reached the
marketing weight of 2-2,5 kg in just six weeks. He noted that intensive breeding of
fast-growing broilers started some 60 years ago. Twenty years ago broilers reached the
marketing weight at about 9 weeks. Today, broilers reach that stage after six weeks,
which has an enormous economic advantage.
The featherless broilers created by Prof. Cahaner have apparently been bred using conventional crosses between scaleless chickens and commercial broilers, followed by backcrossing and selective breeding. We did not employ any genetic engineering procedures in breeding the featherless broiler. The skin of the naked chicken is a normal skin, but with no feather follicles and no subcutaneous fat, Cahaner noted. The Israeli geneticist added that in the late 1970s, featherless broilers were bred and evaluated at
the University of Connecticut but, he explained, these broilers did not grow as fast
as commercial broilers do today and for them overheating had not yet emerged as a
serious problem, hence they were not considered useful at that time, as he was quoted
in The New York Times.".....older article

[katkitty]

They exist, it's just a matter of making them viable for mass production in the food supply.

from 2012 from Prevent Disease, Rueters, New Scientist

http://preventdisease.com/news/12/082312_Scientists-Promote-Featherless-Cross-Bred-Chickens-For-Mass...

Scientists Promote Featherless Cross Bred Chickens For Mass Poultry Farming

Chickens have feathers for a reason, or at least that's how nature intended it.Nine years after the first information on featherless chickens became known, the attention of the public and world media has once again focused on this experiment designed for one purpose--to create a commercial chicken under the assumption of economic and environmental advantages.

The Israeli scientist, Professor Avigdor Cahaner of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem's Faculty of Agriculture, Rehovot, listed
expected benefits of the featherless broilers, especially recognised for hot climate countries.

Now, after genetic modifications and many trials, Cahaner says that all the expected benefits had been proved. He is convinced that there
is a clear economic advantage of growing featherless birds in hot and humid regions.

Cahaner claims the chickens are more efficient, faster growing, heat resistant which will ultimately benefit the poultry industry. It's necessary to understand how scientists such Cahaner think to better understand their motives in genetic experimentation.

Cahaner explains that in hot conditions the feathers of standard chickens prevent efficient dissipation of excess or internally-produced heat. Consequently reducing their actual growth rate, meat yield and meat quality. Also, many die before marketing. "Currently, these
negative consequences can be countered only by expensive energy-dependent cooling and ventilation systems that increase costs and reduce competitiveness of broiler production in hot climates."

Indeed, featherless chickens do not need any artificial cooling or ventilation, and may improved marketability, however when did scientists stop questioning whether they should instead of persisting with whether they could.

Broiler chickens have been bred to gain weight rapidly. But in the process they generate a lot of heat. Farmed chickens are kept at about 20 degrees C - the optimum temperature for weight gain. But in warm countries, expensive air conditioning is necessary to keep to this temperature - and this cannot be afforded by poorer farmers, Cahaner says.

Critics say past experience with feather-free chickens resulting from random genetic mutation shows they suffer more than normal birds. Males have been unable to mate, because they cannot flap their wings, and "naked" chickens of both sexes are more susceptible to parasites, mosquito attacks and sunburn.

"Featherless birds would also be very susceptible to any temperature variations - especially as young birds," says Tom Acamovic, of the Scottish Agricultural College in Ayr.

The chicken is "disgusting", says Joyce D'Silva of Compassion in World Farming. "It's a prime example of sick science and the suggestion that it would be an improvement for developing countries is obscene."

"Factory farming is such an inappropriate technology for developing countries because it uses scarce resources like water, electricity and grain that could be used for human consumption, to produce meat that only the middle classes can afford."

The opponents of the new species have accused the Israeli scientists of having created a genetically modified chicken, reports The Voice of Russia. But the scientists dismiss these charges and insist that the new chicken comes from a natural breed. From the scientific standpoint, it's an ordinary chicken except for the fact that it has no feathers. The new species has been bred through natural selection. The geneticists have spent a long time interbreeding broiler chickens with birds with fewer feathers.

Russian experts have found another serious drawback in the new species of chicken. The absence of feathers will create discomfort during mating, says Deputy Director of research at the Russian Veterinary Institute for Poultry Farming, Margarita Dmitrieva:

"When pairing the rooster may injure the hen with its nails and beak because it has no feathers on the head and the neck. Even now, the nails of two of the rooster's fingers have to be cut off in order to prevent him from injuring the hen. But in the case of new breed, there will be scratches left on the hen's skin, while the rooster will have nothing to hold on to with its beak. This can be quite dangerous for the hen because when other birds see an injured hen they start plucking her. This means that the hen would have to be isolated, treated or culled," Dr Dmitrieva said.

The Israeli geneticists agree with their Russian colleagues but continue to breed bald chickens. The team of researchers led by Avigdor Cahaner is carrying on the experiment. They weigh and measure the newly breed chickens, compare with the conventional breeds and monitor their population, feeding and growth. "The food prepared from bald chicken does not taste any different from those prepared from ordinary chicken," say those who have just tasted the food prepared with bald chickens, as long as you haven't seen those horrible creatures alive.

[CLEM]

I think we should just leave the poor chickens as they are.

Sometimes reading things like this, makes me want to become a vegetarian.

The chickens we had on my grandmother's farm were allowed to roam freely and able to scratch to their heart's content. And their eggs were so much more flavorful than any I have eaten since. Also, the ones we ate tasted to much better than anything I have bought in the supermarket.

[Bird]

The chicken you buy in the supermarket or in a fast food joint are what we call frankenchickens. They are bred to mature so fast, and with breasts so big, that their legs often can't hold their weight and break, leaving the chicken lying and getting trampled until the nighttime workers come in and pick them up by their legs and throw them into crates to be trucked to the slaughterhouse. Even to the birds whose legs don't break, their entire life is one of dark cruelty. - Bird