Potential usefulness of the plumage reducing Naked Neck (Na) gene in poultry production at normal and high ambient temperatures

Age and Gender Depending Growth of Feathers and Feather-Free Body in Modern Fast Growing Meat-Type Chickens

“…According to Lehmann [1] [2] and Hancock et al [55] the DM content of the feathers increased steadily throughout the growing period from 38% at week 1% to 63% DM at week 8 -10 indicating an apparent drying out of feathers with age [14]. Several reports [12] [35] [37] [61] underline our observed age-depending effect (Figure 2), but missing related data about the influence of gender on DM content in feathers.…”

Effect of crossbreeding on fertility, hatchability and embryonic mortality of Nigerian local chickens

“…Peters et al (2008a) reported a 6.1% reduction in embryonic survival in Naked neck chicken genotype when compared to Normal-feathered counterpart. According to Singh et al (2001), this mortality mostly occurred during the last stage of incubation. This is also an indication that the Naked neck gene has lethal effect on survival of embryos.…”

Carcass traits of the naked-neck, dwarf and normal strains of indigenous Tswana chickens under an intensive management system

“…Superior performance of both males and females of the naked neck strain of ITC in carcass traits (live weight, carcass weight and dressing percentage) and consequently in primal cuts (breast, back, drumstick, thigh, wing, neck and shank) weights is consistent with several studies that reported a favourable effect of the naked neck gene in growth performance of indigenous chickens (Yakubu et al, 2008;Patra et al, 2002;Fathi et al, 2008;Reddy et al, 2008). According to Singh et al (2001) and Fathi et al (2008) the naked neck gene reduces feather cover in chickens (see also tables 2 and 3) leading to better heat dissipation and a reduction in heat stress. This consequently preserves energy or protein that would have been used for thermal homeostasis and feather growth and avails more energy/protein for productive functions including muscle growth or weight gains (Yakubu et al, 2008;Mahrous and Radwan, 2011).…”