The Effect of Diethylstilbestrol on Dressing and Cooking Losses of New Hampshire Broiler-Fryers

THE percent of marketable carcass remaining after dressing and evisceration is a matter of concern to poultry producers and processors. The current widespread use of diethylstilbestrol in finishing market poultry has injected a new factor into the dressing loss situation. It has also aroused the interest of economists and housewives as to its effect on cooking losses. Vernon (1923) speculated the broilers and fowl would experience the heaviest cooking loss because broilers have a high water content and fowl are high in fat. Later Lowe and Vernon (1927) found that the smallest total cooking loss occurred with roasters, followed by fryers and broilers. They also found that excessively fat birds have a very high cooking loss. Evidence regarding factors controlling dressing loss of different market classes of poultry is still somewhat meager and incomplete. Jull and Maw (1923), Mitchell et al. (1926) and McNally and Spicknail (1949) reported that relationships …