Brief Review on Local Chicken Breeds in Korea with Respect to Growth Performance and Meat Quality

Local breeds are known to possess favorable characteristics such as resistance to some pathogens, superior meat flavor and taste and high dressing percentage. Due to these characteristics, higher consumption of meat product from local chickens has been on increase in countries such as East Asia and Europe and consumers are willing to pay premium price. There are four locally available chicken breeds bred for and consumed as a nutritive and medicine food in Korea. These are White-mini broilers, Hanhyup-3-ho, Woorimatdag and Silky fowl. Due to the increase in consumer preference on healthy foods, demand on meat products from local chicken breeds has been surged. The current review is aimed to briefly introduce the growth and meat characteristics of local chicken breeds in Korea.