Effect of age at caponage on production performances and carcasses’ characteristics of local-breed cockerels in Senegal

Abstract

In order to promote and make profitable the breeding of local chickens, much research has been carried out
on the latter in order to stimulate its growth and yield through caponage. However, the unsatisfactory
conclusions obtained raise the question of whether the age of the captioning subjects is not a limiting factor.
This is how this study, carried out on local chickens (Rainbow) was initiated to evaluate the implication of age in the effects of caponage. The experiment was carried out using the flank caponage technique. At the
end of the work, it was observed that cockerels castrated at 4 and 6 weeks had significantly higher growth
than intact cockerels. At the same time, those castrated at 8 weeks had growth similar to the control group.
The carcass yield was respectively 85.85%; 85.80% and 83.14% for lots 1; 2 and 3 compared to 80% for
the control batch. Abdominal fat was one of the consequences of caponage noted by the study. A naive
tasting panel judged the organoleptic properties of the experimental batches to be better than the control
batch. These different results recorded could constitute an asset for traditional breeding with low yields of
breeders.