Naked Neck Polish: Hyderabadi breeds new variety

May 18, 2008
By Syed Akbar
A fancy poultry breeder from Hyderabad has created an exotic new variety of "Polish", without feathers on its neck. This is the first time that a Polish bird has been bred with a naked neck.
The breeder took a Naked Neck bird and crossbred it with a Polish bird to
obtain Naked Neck Polish. This he achieved in the eighth generation. Moreover, the new bird has several genetic advantages over ordinary poultry birds. It is resistant to a number of poultry diseases.
The new Naked Neck Polish is presently on display at a private poultry farm in Caravan area of old city of Hyderabad. Similar cross breeding attempts have been made in different parts of the world without much success.
"One has to wait for at least eight generations to confirm that a chosen
feature obtained from cross breed sustains in the offspring. In our case, we have successfully demonstrated that Naked Neck Polish bird could be achieved and the
new features sustained in the subsequent generations," says fancy poultry
breeder Naveed Qureshi.
Naked Neck Polish birds are now available only in Hyderabad and Naveed plans to export them to other countries, once the Union government lifts the ban on poultry imports-exports imposed in the wake of bird flu scarce in some Asian countries including West Bengal State in the country.
The Naked Neck is the only breed of poultry, which has no feathers on the neck. The bird has its origin in Central Europe and is popularly known as Transylvanian Naked Neck. It is also called Turken as the bird was wrongly thought to have evolved from cross breed between a chicken and a turkey.
It is a dual-purpose utility bird that gives a large number of eggs. It is in high demand for the rich quality of its meat and easy plucking of feathers. On the other hand Polish breed originated in Poland and is famous for its beauty. It bears crown-like feathers on its head. The bird is bred for fancy and is resistant to most of the poultry diseases.
"All these features from the two species of birds have been obtained in the new variety Naked Neck Polish. There are as many as 14 basic colours and several new standard colours," says Naveed, whose sprawling farm has more than 100 varieties of exotic birds including frizzled white Poland, white crest blue Polish, austrolop, orpinton, play mouth rock, white wyndoh and modern English game.