A great change has taken place in meat type chicken especially in the past 40 years (HAVENSTEIN et al., 1994). In 1950 a 12 week period was required to reach the slaughter weight of 1.8-2.0 kg. Nowadays it requires even less than 6 weeks (REMIGNON et al., 1994). H AVENSTEIN et al. (1994) reported average bodyweight of 1957 type broilers fed 1957 diets to be 508, 790, 1087 and 1400 g at the age of 42, 56, 70 and 84 days respectively. Arbor Acres commercial broilers attained 2132, 3108, 3812 and 4498 g liveweight fed 1991 diets for the same ages sexes combined. The increase in bodyweight at 42 weeks was exceeding 400% at the age of 42 days and only 20% of this could be attributed to the improved diets fed in 1991 compared to those of 1957. Feeding effects diminished with age, at 84 days of age the improvement was only 8% . The changes in commercial broilers are most apparent in growth and feed conversion but it did affect also carcass traits and body composition to as recent data published indicate (HAVENSTEIN et al. 1994 ). Very few reports have been published so far, presenting data on carcass traits and chemical composition of commercial broilers raised far beyond normal broiler or roaster age. G REY et al. (1982) reported on live body weight, eviscerated yield, muscle and edible offal of a commercial broiler strain (Ross 1) at 21, 35, 56, 76, 175 and 364 days of age. S0RENSEN and D uCRO (1995) compared growth and chemical composition of broiler experimental lines grown till 140 days of age. Informations on whole body composition are limited considering the !arge volume of research published with broilers grown ti!l market age close to that practised in commercial operations. This inadequacy occurred because grinding the whole body is difficult, feathers creating the overwhelming part of the problem. Most often the chemical analyses are performed on the defeathered bodies (MoRAN, 1995). In the trial reported in this paper we present data on carcass traits, abdominal fat deposition and chemical composition of the whole