Crossbreeding a Mediterranean Local Chicken Breed with a Medium-Growing Commercial Hybrid as a Complementary Strategy for Conservation and Productive Valorization: Growth Performance, Carcass Traits, and Meat Quality

Local chicken breeds are valuable genetic resources, but their limited growth performance may restrict practical use. This study evaluated whether crossing the Murciana chicken, a Mediterranean local breed, with the medium-growing commercial hybrid Hubbard JA757 could improve performance while retaining differentiated meat-quality traits. A total of 179 male chickens were assigned to three genotypes: Murciana (Mur), Murciana × Hubbard JA757 (MurHb), and Hubbard JA757 (Hb), reared under identical conditions, and slaughtered at a common target body weight. Final body weight was comparable among genotypes but reached at different ages (126, 78, and 53 days for Mur, MurHb, and Hb). Compared with Mur, MurHb showed higher average daily gain (30.6 vs. 21.5 g/d), improved feed conversion ratio (2.58 vs. 3.89), obtained higher carcass yield, and increased breast yield, although performance remained below Hb. Mur showed lower drip and cooking losses, whereas MurHb generally showed intermediate responses. In thigh meat, MurHb showed higher lipid content than Mur and a differentiated fatty acid profile, with lower SFA than Mur but PUFA, n-3, n-6/n-3, and PUFA/SFA values comparable to Mur and distinct from Hb. Overall, Murciana-derived crossbred improved productive performance while preserving local-breed meat-quality and lipid-related traits, supporting their potential as a complementary conservation-through-use strategy.