“Phoenix claws” are not something most University students see on their plates at mealtimes. However, phoenix claws – the common restaurant name for chicken feet – are one of the poultry industry’s leading exports.

“In the past, chicken feet were considered a waste product; companies had to pay to get rid of it,” said Brian Fairchild, associate professor of poultry science, in a phone interview Tuesday. Nowadays, chicken feet, or paws, are a “major food item for Asian markets,” Fairchild said, when� before they were used in animal feed.

Eric Shepherd, a master’s student from Griffin, is researching with Fairchild to determine factors that affect foot pad dermatitis, a condition in which “lesions develop [on the foot pad] due to interaction with a variety of environmental factors” in poultry. He wanted to work on his thesis “in live products,” and after discussing his options with Fairchild, the “hot issue” of downgrades from the dermatitis became his focus.

The research objectives are to “narrow down certain factors that affect FPD and try to find ways to fix it,” Shepherd said in an interview Thursday. FPD can range from mild, with barely discernable lesions, to severe, large black scabs.

“From an animal welfare point of view, these lesions are considered a checkpoint,” he said. If a chicken were to have bloody, burned foot pads, it could be a sign of suffering.

Economically, the quality downgrades could go so far as to have the feet discarded and not sold for consumption. FPD results in “paw quality downgrades,” which decrease profits, Shepherd said. There was an estimated $100 million loss last year for the Georgia industry from chicken feet, Shepherd said.

Paws are one of the “most valuable parts of the bird” and are a “major economical item for the [poultry] industry,” Fairchild said. They can add between 80 cents to more than $1 per pound in profit. Scott Russell, poultry science professor, said he believes most of the additional profit goes back to the harvesting facility.

At the harvesting facility, paws are removed from the freshly-cleaned bird after they come through the “pickers,” Russell said in a phone interview Thursday. A hot cutter cuts across the back of the hock, and then the bird goes onto an “automated re-hang” system where the foot is removed from the chicken, he said. Russell said the majority of paws are exported to Asian markets, though they also are used in Central America to flavor soups.

A certain percentage of feet with milder lesions can be packaged with Grade A feet and shipped in 11-pound bags to countries where they will be sold in open markets, Shepherd said. Once at the market, “a lot of bargaining goes on” to determine price, since countries vary in their quality grades.

Even with FPD, Shepherd said he is not aware of adverse health effects of eating chicken feet, but that it is an issue they plan to look at in their research. Fairchild compared the popularity of paws in Asian markets to that of the breast meat in the United States. Though hard to find in the Athens area, some Atlanta restaurants have found a niche for the exotic dish.

Simon Sau, manager of Royal China Restaurant in Atlanta, sells a small dish of “phoenix claws” for $2.50 and said it is “very popular” with customers. His paws are ordered from a supermarket, cleaned, fried and “preserved with plumping sauce, then steamed.”

Sang Dao, a sophomore from Demorest, ate chicken feet at one of these Atlanta restaurants. “They’re pretty tasty, actually,” Dao wrote in an e-mail interview Thursday. “At first I kind of hesitated, but I tried it and found that it was pretty good.”

Alex Brown, a sophomore from Covington, La., was wary of the food’s taste.

“I do not believe the feet of any animal would be tasteful. I’m pretty sure cannibals don’t even eat the feet,” he said.