Chicken Authentication and Discrimination via Live Weight, Body Size, Carcass Traits, and Breast Muscle Fat Content Clustering as Affected by Breed and Sex Varieties in Malaysia

Abstract

Nowadays, the high demand for village chickens in Malaysia leads to the fraudulent substitution of indigenous chickens with other cheaper counterparts. Discriminating different chicken breeds based on their phenotypic characteristics is one strategy to avoid chicken adulteration. The main objective of this study was to authenticate and group dominant chicken breeds in Malaysia, including commercial chickens (Cobb, Hubbard, DeKalb) and cross-bred village chickens (Ayam Kampung, Akar Putra). The further discrimination of village chickens from underaged colored broilers (UCBs) (Hubbard, Sasso) was performed based on phenotype traits. The results showed that the breed had a significant effect (p < 0.05) on phenotypic characteristics, while the sex effect was not significant for some characteristics. In the first phase, the most remarkable discriminating factors were abdominal fat weight, breast muscle weight, chest circumference, shank length, and wingspan. However, in the second phase, notable variations in phenotypic characteristics between village chickens and UCBs were not detected. Principal component analysis (PCA) showed the successful separation of village chickens from high-performance breeds (broiler and colored broiler). Nevertheless, there was overlap among observations for Sasso and village chickens, which approved the possible similarities in their phenotypic characteristics. This study showed clear breed clustering, which leads to the chicken authentication based on their phenotypic characteristics.

Predictive Equations of Carcass Characteristics and Primal Cut Weights of Native Mexican Guajolotes Using Body Measurements

“…Overall, carcass characteristics showed moderate variability (<25%), except AFW which had a CV of 92.11% among birds. In this regard, Nematbakhsh et al (2021) found that the variation in body fat content in broilers can be explained by breed, slaughter age and maturity stage of the birds. Internal fat is considered to be the most variable body component in farm animals (Bautista-Díaz et al, 2020).…”

“…Previously, Juárez-Caratachea (2004) reported higher percentages of hot and cold dressing (78.94 and 75.91%, respectively), which were related to the higher slaughter body weigh to the native guajolotes used in that study (7.93 ± 0.69 kg). In poultry production, the dressing percentage is an important criterion for the evaluation of slaughter value of the carcass (Mueller et al, 2018;Nematbakhsh et al, 2021). Overall, carcass characteristics showed moderate variability (<25%), except AFW which had a CV of 92.11% among birds.…”

Effects of Capsaicin on Growth Performance, Meat Quality, Digestive Enzyme Activities, Intestinal Morphology, and Organ Indexes of Broilers

“…The above indicates that dietary MC supplementation could improve the meat quality by decreasing the pH and drop losses. What's more, the main target of commercial broiler chicken production is achieving high-yield and high-quality muscles, especially breast muscle, which is considered the most valuable piece of the chicken carcass and greatly affected by the breed ( 36 ). In the present study, dietary MC supplementation had no significant influences on the carcass trait.…”

Growth performance, survivability and profitability of improved smallholder chicken genetics in Nigeria: A COVID-19 intervention study

“…Frontiers in Genetics frontiersin.org reported that genetic selection geared towards improvement in production traits could have an effect on the growth performance of the birds (Nematbakhsh et al, 2021). Both FUNAAB Alpha and Noiler have been genetically selected for improved dual-purpose (meat and eggs) performance in flocks owned by rural and peri-urban households.…”