Naked Neck: A Noble Gene for Broiler Production in Tropical Climate

Abstract

Abstract Singh, B., Singh, B.P., Singh, S., Chaudhuri, D. and Malik, S. 1998. Naked neck: A noble gene for broiler production in tropical climate. J. Appl. Anim. Res., 13: 37–48. Naked neck gene is controlled by incomplete dominance, which reduces feather coverage in chickens by 20% and 40% in the heterozygous and homozygous conditions, respectively. The reduced feather, leaving more protein for other tissues, mainly muscle meat, the reduced plumage was also associated with lower skin mass due to reduced fat deposition. Moreover broilers grow faster that results in positive effects on all the production traits in tropical climate. It is expected that in future, further reduction in feather coverage will be advantageous even at the temperate ambient temperatures. Heat shock proteins have been identified in chickens. This may also lead to better understanding of the genetic control of the chickens' response to heat stress.