Profitability and meat quality of fast-, medium- and slow-growing meat-type chicken genotypes as affected by growth and length of rearing.

The study aimed to evaluate the profitability, meat quality, and carcass parameters of fast-, medium-, and slow-growing meat-type chicken genotypes of Bangladesh. Nine hundred DOCs were randomly allocated to 6 treatments: T = commercial broilers, T = CPF-3 (central poultry farm-3), T = cockerel, T = , T = NDD (non-descriptive ), and T = , having 5 replications of 30 chicks each. Birds were reared under complete confinement until their respective market ages (commercial broilers = 35 d; CPF-3 = 45 d; cockerel = 56 d, and  = 77 d;  = 63 d and NDD = 77 d) and fed commercial broiler diets. Net returns, meat quality, growth, and carcass yield were measured. NDD and showed significantly the highest profitability and superior meat quality. Commercial broilers exhibited the highest final body weight (2355.59 g/b) followed by (1241 g/b) and NDD (1006 g/b), while CPF-3 (860.21 g/b), cockerel (915.49 g/b), and (788.43 g/b) had lower final body weights at their respective market ages. Commercial broilers had the highest carcass weight and dressing yields, followed by and cockerel, and lower in , CPF-3, and NDD. The study concluded that rearing slow- or medium-growing NDD and is superior to fast-growing commercial broilers or CPF-3 regarding profitability, and meat quality. The results of current findings help small-scale farmers in choosing a suitable meat-type chicken that yields better profitability and also for the consumers who wish to pay a fair price for the birds, considering the meat quality specific to each chicken genotype.