Why do turkeys produced for meat have white feathers?
The turkey is the only farm animal that is native to North America. The
turkey in the wild has a feather color pattern termed bronze. In most
animals, the so-called “wild type” is generally the hardiest, for the
animal in the wild must survive under sometimes severe conditions such
as shortage of feed and extreme weather conditions. The wild animal must
be agile to avoid predators. When the domestic turkey was developed for
food for humans, the bronze turkey emerged as the best. It grew the
fastest and had many other traits that were desirable for production of
meat for human consumption. Breeders increased the body weight of the
bronze turkey by selecting birds that grew the fastest and had other
desirable traits. However, in the 1950’s a marketing problem developed.
When the feathers of the bronze turkey were removed (a process called
dressing), black spots remained on the skin due to colored pinfeathers
and leakage of the feather pigment into the skin. These spots did not
affect the meat quality but consumers did not like to see them so
something had to be done.
Turkeys with a white feather mutation were available that had all white
feathers. These feathers did not leave spots on the carcass of the
dressed turkey. The problem was that these turkeys did not grow as fast
as the bronze turkeys. At market age, the white turkeys were about two
pounds smaller than the bronze turkeys. Turkey breeders overcame this
problem by intense selection for increased growth rate and ultimately
white turkey strains were developed that grew faster than existing
bronze strains. Even though the bronze strains had certain traits that
were better than the white strains, such as better mobility and better
disease resistance, the white strains became predominant and today most
bronze strains that exist are maintained by fanciers who like their
beautiful feather color pattern.
Dr. Karl Nestor |
