Breeders watch out, here comes the superchick

Stand to attention Colonel Sanders - you face competition from Hong Kong Superchick.

Mother hen researchers at Hong Kong University are worried that top tasting Chinese native chickens are becoming extinct because farmers keep breeding them with foreign impostors.

There are many varieties of Chinese chicks, which are wholesome, but grow slowly. The greedy Western broiler, by contrast, has been bred to grow like a balloon but can also taste like it, while it has lost much disease resistance.

Chinese farmers began crossing their native scrawny versions with the Western type, and Western breeders are eyeing Chinese birds - with the result that some Chinese pure breeds have already clucked their last, says project leader Professor Daniel Chan Kwong-on of the zoology department at the university.

Now scientific methods of genetic fingerprinting and choosing the chromosomes should find the optimum grower with the best flavoured meat - a true, finger-lickin' good Superchick.

Today a team of four researchers will unveil their $8.25 million, three-year government-funded project to save Chinese chickens as a source of pure genes.