Carcass and meat quality characteristics of native Kamrupa chicken reared in India

Kamrupa is a new variety of chicken developed by crossing three different types of strains, i.e., Assam local, coloured broiler (PB-2), and Dahlem red, in the All India Co-ordinated Research Project on Poultry Breeding, CVSc, AAU, Khanapara, with the objective of being reared as a backyard bird. A study was undertaken to evaluate the carcass characteristics from two age groups, i.e., 12 and 54 weeks, and from both sexes of Kamprupa chicken. The carcass of 54 weeks of Kamrupa chicken had shown significantly better (p<0.05) carcass traits for all the parameters, such as carcass weight, dressing percentage, meat bone ratio, and weight of whole sale cuts, when comparison was made with the carcasses of 12 weeks of age. However, sexes were found to have no influence on the wholesale cuts in both age groups of birds. Body weight and carcass weight influenced the yield of both edible (giblet) and inedible by-products, and thus, birds in the 54-week age group gave a higher yield of by-products. Although no significant differences were observed between the mean values of inedible by-products for both sexes in the 12-week age group, the corresponding values at 54 weeks of age group showed contrasting results, as the male birds generated significantly more inedible by-products than the female. From this study, it can be concluded that to achieve better carcass quality, slaughter should be done at a higher age.