October 9, 2014

 

New generation of chickens bigger, tastier--study

 

 

Today's chicken is bigger, meatier and even tastier compared to the chicken 60 years ago.

 

According to findings of a study conducted by researchers at the University of Alberta in Canada, broiler growth increased by over 400% from 1957 to 2005

 

Thus, today's chicken is four times the size of the chicken 60 years ago, said the study, which was published in the journal Poultry Science.

 

So, are today's chickens injected with steroids or have feeds changed?

 

One of the study authors, Martin Zuidhof, interviewed on CTV News, said no, they aren't.

 

It's just that broiler chickens have become more efficient at using the feed they take in, he said.

 

He noted that it now takes less than 50 days to grow a full-size chicken compared to 70 days in the 1950s.

 

Zuidhof also explained that since chickens can produce a lot of offspring in one year it is easier to breed the naturally bigger chickens to produce similar results in the generations afterward.

 

The study compared three groups of chickens. The first group hadn't changed through breeding since 1957, the second one hadn't changed since 1978 and the third was more recently bred. Photographs were taken of the birds each week and the researchers tracked their "growth rate, feed intake and measures of feed efficiency."

 

Commenting on the study results, the National Chicken Council said on its website: "Driven by industry advancements, the broiler produced today is meatier, more affordable to the consumer and more wholesome than the broiler of 50 years ago -- or even 15 years ago."