Published in Scientific Papers. Series "Management, Economic Engineering in Agriculture and rural development", Vol. 25 ISSUE 2
Written by Krasimir DIMOV, Evgeni PETKOV, Teodora POPOVA

In recent years the practice of culling the one day-old male layer-type chickens has been strongly criticized for both humane and environmental concerns. A possible solution for this problem is to rear the layer cockerels for meat or to use dual-purpose poultry lines. Hence, our survey aimed to assess the consumers’ preferences forcertain sensory attributes and the willingness to purchase meat from malelayer-type and dual-purpose chickens. For the objective of the study the chicken meat was derived from two poultry lines– layer type L and dual-purpose Salmon raised in the Institute of Animal Science-Kostinbrod, Bulgaria. A total of 257 respondents were involved in the survey. The latter was designed in three panels and contained 22 questions.The results indicated that the meat from both layer-type and dual-purpose birds scored higher in texture and taste in comparison to the commonly purchased poultry meat, however, the ready-to-cook chicken carcasses were smaller. The comparison between both layer and dual-purpose lines showed similar results for the meat sensory evaluation, however, the declared annual consumption gave significant advantage to the layer-type chickens.

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