Naked Neck

The Naked Neck is a breed of chicken that is naturally
devoid of feathers on its neck and vent.[1] The breed
is also called the Transylvanian Naked Neck, as well
as the Turken. Originally from Transylvania and was
largely developed in Germany. The name Turken arose
from the mistaken idea that the bird was a hybrid of a
chicken and the domestic turkey. Naked Necks are fairly
common in Europe today, but are rare in North Amer-
ica and very common in South America. The trait for a
naked neck is a dominant one controlled by one gene and
is fairly easy to introduce into other breeds,[4] however
these are hybrids rather than true Naked Necks, which
is a breed recognized by the American Poultry Associa-
tion since 1965, it was introduced in Britain in the 1920s.
There are other breeds of naked necked chicken, such as
the French naked neck, which is often confused with the
Transylvanian, and the naked necked gamefowl.
1 Characteristics
Recognized color varieties include: black, white, cuckoo,
bu, red, and blue in the United Kingdom[5] and black,
white, bu, and red in the United States.[6][2]
2 Naked-neck trait
The naked-neck trait which characterizes this breed is
controlled by an incompletely dominant allele (Na) lo-
cated near the middle of Chromosome 3.[7] Since this al-
lele is dominant, individuals which are either homozygous
dominant (Na/Na) or heterozygous (Na/na+) will exhibit
the naked-neck characteristic though the heterozygous in-
dividual will exhibit less reduction in feathering - true
breeding members of the breed must then be homozygous
dominant, and all individuals in the recognized breed
must be also. Individuals which are homozygous reces-
sive (or wild type feathered) (na+/na+) would not exhibit
any feather reduction characteristics of the Naked Necks
and, baring mutation, would be unable to pass that trait
down.[8]
Scientic studies have indicated that the naked-neck gene
(Na) improves breast size and reduces heat stress in chick-
ens of non-broiler breeds which are homozygous for the
trait.[9] Additionally, in tropical climates if the naked-
neck trait (Na) is bred into broiler strains it has been
shown to facilitate lower body temperature, increased
body weight gain, better Feed conversion ratios and
carcass traits compared to normally feathered broilers.[10]

3 See also

Naked Neck chickens

Despite its highly unusual appearance, the breed is not

particularly known as an exhibition bird, and is a dual-
purpose utility chicken. They lay a respectable number
of light brown eggs, and are considered desirable for meat
production because they need less plucking and they have
a meaty body. They are very good foragers and are im-
mune to most diseases. The breed is also reasonably cold
hardy despite its lack of feathers. Naked Neck roosters
carry a single comb, and the neck and head often be-
come very bright red from increased sun exposure. This
breed has approximately half the feathers of other chick- French Naked Neck hens in Italy
ens, making it resistant to hot weather and easier to pluck.

1
2 4 REFERENCES

List of chicken breeds

American Poultry Association

4 References
[1] Carol Ekarius (2007). Storeys Illustrated Guide to Poul-
try Breeds. North Adams, MA: Storey Publishing. ISBN
9781580176682. p. 13435.

[2] APA Recognized Breeds and Varieties as of January 1,

2012. American Poultry Association. Accessed August
2014.

[3] Breed Classication. Poultry Club of Great Britain. Ac-

cessed August 2014.

[4] Turken Oklahoma State University Breeds of Live Stock

[5] Breeds > Chickens > Naked Neck Omlet UK.

[6] Naked Neck (Turken) My Pet Chicken Breed Pages.

[7] Chromosome Linkages Poultry Genetics for Exhibition

Breeders. Last updated: 13 Nov, 2008.

[8] Chicken Mutations Poultry Genetics. Poultry Genetics for

Exhibition Breeders. Last updated: 13 Nov, 2008.

[9] Interactions between the naked neck gene, sex, and uc-
tuating ambient temperature on heat tolerance, growth,
body composition, meat quality, and sensory analysis of
slow growing meat-type broilers. Livestock Science. Vol-
ume 110, Issues 1-2, June 2007, Pages 33-45

[10] Performance of naked neck versus normally feathered

coloured broilers for growth, carcass traits and blood bio-
chemical parameters in tropical climate PATRA B. N. ;
BAIS R. K. S. ; PRASAD R. B. ; SINGH B. P. Asian-
australasian journal of animal sciences: ISSN 1011-2367.
2002, vol. 15, no12, pp. 1776-1783.

Graham, Chris (2006). Choosing and Keeping

Chickens. 2-4 Heron Quays London E14 4JP: Octo-
pus Publishing. ISBN 978-0-7938-0601-0.

Rossier, Jay (2002). Living with Chickens. Guilford,

Connecticut: The Lyons Press. ISBN 1-59228-013-
7.
 3

5 Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

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