An Israeli Geneticist Has Created the World’s First Featherless Chicken.
Experts indicate that commercial broilers possess genetic traits that make them eat more, gain weight rapidly, and have hearts that can beat up to 300 beats per minute, resulting in a higher metabolic rate compared to other chicken breeds. Although this quick weight gain makes broilers ideal for the ever-growing meat processing industry, it also presents a significant issue: overheating.
Raising broiler chickens in hot climates requires expensive cooling systems to manage their temperatures. To save energy and costs for farmers, Israeli scientists came up with the idea of creating a featherless chicken.
Variations in DNA codes can lead to fascinating outcomes in animals. The Featherless Chicken is a specially bred variant that originated from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Israel.
This chicken breed was developed by Israeli scientists to adapt to the hot climate of Israel, enhancing the poultry industry in the country.
A close-up of the unusual featherless chicken – a product of science.
Professor Avigdor Cahaner shared: “We bred from a natural featherless chicken breed known for the past 50 years. It looks just like a normal chicken except that it has no feathers. Moreover, these chickens will grow very quickly because they don’t need to expend energy on feather growth.”
Compared to other chicken breeds, farmers raising featherless chickens will likely spend less on cooling systems at their farms.
Additionally, all the nutrients consumed by the chickens will be converted into meat, without needing to allocate resources to feather growth, allowing them to grow faster.
In essence, the featherless chicken is not a DNA mutation but rather the result of selective breeding. Researchers selectively chose chickens with less feathering and gradually bred them to create these featherless chicks.
Featherless chickens thrive comfortably in hot climates; their lack of feathers helps keep their bodies cooler as outdoor temperatures rise.
Featherless chickens are not DNA mutants but the result of special breeding.
However, poultry experts have raised concerns about this research, stating that a featherless chicken may struggle to maintain good health. Males without feathers will have difficulty mating, as they cannot flap their wings to balance while mounting a hen.
Furthermore, featherless chickens are more susceptible to skin diseases and parasitic infestations. Mosquitoes can easily feed on them, and their skin is more prone to sunburn.
Nevertheless, the primary reason featherless chickens have not gained popularity in the two decades since their introduction is that people are still not accustomed to their “unnatural appearance.” Some condemn them as “evidence of sick science,” while others argue that normal chickens have already endured enough and do not need to be bred into more vulnerable animals.
A study published in the journal Agriallis concluded that consumer acceptance of featherless chickens is unlikely to be high “due to fears of hormone use, abnormal animals, and health impacts.”
