Effect of caponization on weight gain, meat quality, carcass traits and immunocompetence in native Iranian cockerels

The aim of this study was to determine the effects of caponization of Iranian native cockerels on body weight gain, carcass characteristics, meat quality and immune response. The chockerels were surgically caponized or sham- operated at 12 weeks of age. Then, 10 healthy capons and 10 sham-operated cockerels (control group) were assigned to the experiment. The birds were kept until 24 week of age and fed the same diet. The immune system of all birds was evaluated based on SRBC, IgM and IgG titers during the rearing period. The cooking loss and organoleptic evaluation was performed on breast meat postmortem. The results showed that comb and wattle growth and the relative weight of thighs was significantly (p < 0.05) reduced as a result of caponization. In the slaughter characteristics, the capon group showed higher proportion of whole leg, liver and breast meat weights than sham-operated group. There was no significant difference in final body weight, average daily gain, carcass yield, abdominal fat percentage, immune system response and sensory attributes of breast meat with the exception of odor between two groups. However, the caponization of native cockerels can be useful for commercial purposes due to the higher marketing value of meat from capons.