The Bangladesh Livestock Research Institute (BLRI) has developed a new chicken variety having resemblance to local indigenous species, said officials.

The new chicken-breed has been developed aiming to bring back the taste and quality chicken meat for consumers.

This variety looks exactly like a native variety of chicken, a BLRI release said.

It is suitable for Bangladeshi climate as well, it said.

The rate of disease infections is much lesser and it also needs comparatively least amount of medicines, officials said.

The new breed will be marketed through Aftab Hatchery Ltd within a time, BLRI said.

A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) has been signed between BLRI and Aftab Hatchery Ltd in this regard.

The Director general of BLRI Dr Nathuram Sarkar said that there is a huge demand for local chicken meat but the native breed is rare.

He said 'Sonali Chicken' now dominates the market as a subititute of native chicken and it is sold as local or Pakistani variety.

He, however, pointed out that there is no praline of Sonali and for this numerous diseases emerged that forced farmers to use medicines randomly.

This new breed has, therefore, been developed to reduce the disease threat.

The consumers as well as the farmers could be benefited, he added.

Fazle Rahim Khan Shahriar, Managing Director of Aftab Hatchery Ltd, said his company's goal is to bring back the taste of domestic chicken, to introduce a breed which can prevent diseases and would be Bangladeshi climate friendly.

The breed has primarily been named as 'BLRI Multicolor Table Chicken'.

However, a brand name for commercial purpose will be finalised shortly, said Aftab officials.

According to the MoU between BLRI and Aftab Hatchery, Aftab alone would market this new chicken breed.