Bald chicken 'needs no plucking'

[DerkPY]

Feather coverage is greatly reduced on the birds

Scientists have bred a controversial featherless chicken which they say is faster growing.

The birds, created at the Hebrew University in Israel, will not need to be plucked, saving money in processing plants.

While the researcher behind the breed concedes that they would not be suitable for cooler countries, he says that in hot climates, the birds would fare better.

However, opponents of the move say that the changes do not benefit the animals, and are in fact likely to make their lives worse.

Professor Avigdor Cahaner, who led the project, told the BBC: "This is not a genetically modified chicken - it comes from a natural breed whose characteristics have been known for 50 years.

"I am just transferring that to fast growing broiler chickens. It's a normal chicken except for the fact it has no feathers."

He said that broiler chickens were fed intensively to achieve fast growth, which meant they also tended to produce a lot of body heat; and this meant that particularly in hotter countries, they "suffer tremendously".

The featherless birds would tend to be leaner, and perhaps grow faster, he said, which would improve the quality of the meat and save producers money.

Pollution claim

Removing the plucking process would also reduce pollution, he said. The process, he claimed, produced large quantities of water contaminated with feathers and fat.

However, animal welfare groups warned that feathers were important to help protect the birds from parasites - and that the featherless chickens were likely to suffer sunburn.

In addition, male chickens might not be able to mate, they argued.

Source

[kawai]

how come it's all red.

[nomis_nehc]

dude, that's sick. at first I thought it was a rubber/toy chicken till I read the text. Honestly, I thought this was a joke.

[Apollo]

ugh

[shockz]

Originally posted by kawai

how come it's all red.

It was out in the sun to long and got burnt because its feathers weren't there to sheild the suns rays :p

But seriously... gross!

[hunter1234]

yea this is 100% real, i've seen it on the news. good idea. but i guess there will be animal right freaks out there that's gonna try and cause some nonsense crusade to stop the featherless chicken from being marketed.

[Keldyn]

I think chickens are scarey enough with their feathers.:s

[kawai]

Will somebody please think of the cocks????

They won't be getting any without those feathers :p

[Rudy]

thats a funny looking chicken :s

[gravel5839]

mmm chicken

[DerkPY]

Originally posted by shockz

It was out in the sun to long and got burnt because its feathers weren't there to sheild the suns rays

They can't go in the sun because they fall over with the heat and die. The reason its red is because that is the colour of a chicken with no feathers. Its kept in a small space next to all the rest of the bald chickens, so its hot, and they rub together causing rashes and stuff, so the chicken is just one big rash!

[kintamanate]

Originally posted by PigeonHead

correct me if im wrong..but isnt that a rooster?

[DerkPY]

Its a ######.

[space monkey]

OMG this is cool! Now the cheap chines buffet have no excuses for small feathers on the chicken wings! :D

Wait till the smarmy animal rights and religious fuktards get a hold this...

Personally i can't wait till we can just grow our own vat food meats :p

[sailgreg]

Originally posted by Keldyn

I think chickens are scarey enough with their feathers.:s

Yeah, they are :)

[KeR]

yeah I saw this on CNN.....lol

It looks sick I don't think that I would want to try one of them.

[Osiris]

lol

ahh colonel sanders would roll over in his grave

Im all for this idea, about time we started putting technology and genetic engineering to work for us.

/me round of appluase

I want more ideas like this

saving us money, time and putting technology to good use.

[dan]

Thats terrible! i cant believe these scientists! Why dont they stop wasting there time doing cruel and unusual things like this and start researching cures to diseases and illnesses that may make a use in the real world

[Osiris]

How is this cruel?

you think the chicken/rooster is in pain? not like it had feathers and they ripped them all out.

He isnt missing anything since he was never born with them

And this is important, can you fathem how much money this would save the food industry

Over 22% the cost of produicng chickens for sale be it to supermarkets/food chain eg kfc etc goes to cleaning it and removing feathers

with this brave new venture thats 22% more profit for the industry which means over the next decade

chicken prices should remain stable, more jobs, and greater effeciency in the industry.

Now thats if they picked up the technology immediately but chances are thanks to people like the above guy that wont happen for the next decade, but get use to it people because it will happen

Irrespective of wearther you want to know your chicken or turkey was featherless when it was born come Thanks giving or when ya earing ya KFC takeway the fact is, that featherless chicken saved you paying alot more for ya meal then what you would want too.

Granted where talking meager prices here except with turkeys man they cost alot, but I eat kfc on a regular basis and almost every year it goes up, so if for the next few years the prices can remain the same and there effiecency can increase im all for it.

Also the example of KFC and the turkey is just one/1.5 examples dont be so narrow to think there isnt far grehater benefits for this, think industry think economics think future, then you might have a spec of a clue to the whole picture little developments like this can have on the internation economy cycles.

[twist]

lol, lube that sucker up and try catching it, the hicks are gonna have a new pastime now

[Tesseract]

OMG that is freaky :s