Commercial consequences of selecting for leanness in poultry

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the commercial consequences of selection for leanness in poultry. A significant shift in consumer trends and food preference can be observed within the past decade. Many of the observed changes can be related either to increased nutrition/health awareness or the move toward convenience cooking. The latter area would encompass both fast food restaurants and eat-at-home, pre-cooked products. Commercial poultry geneticists have been very successful in developing a broiler chicken that shows a twofold increase in early relative growth compared with its counterpart of 20 years ago. These differences in relative growth from 0 to 4 weeks were accompanied by concomitant decreases in feed efficiency, while both relative gain and efficiency were similar in the old and new genetic stocks from 4 to 8 weeks. There is no question that developing leaner commercial broiler breeding stock is a desirable and realistic goal. However, while the end result is easily agreed upon, the best means of achieving this is still open to debate.