Editing Poultry (section)

==Chickens==
{{main|Chicken}}
[[File:Rooster portrait2.jpg|upright|thumb|right|Cock with comb and wattles]]
Chickens are medium-sized, chunky birds with an upright stance and characterised by fleshy red [[Comb (anatomy)|combs]] and [[Wattle (anatomy)|wattles]] on their heads. Males, known as cocks, are usually larger, more boldly coloured, and have more exaggerated plumage than females (hens). Chickens are gregarious, [[Omnivore|omnivorous]], ground-dwelling birds that in their natural surroundings search among the [[leaf litter]] for seeds, invertebrates, and other small animals. They seldom fly except as a result of perceived danger, preferring to run into the undergrowth if approached.<ref name=Card/> Today's domestic chicken (''Gallus gallus domesticus'') is mainly descended from the wild [[red junglefowl]] of Asia, with some additional input from [[grey junglefowl]], [[Sri Lankan junglefowl]], and [[green junglefowl]].<ref name= Eriksson>{{Citation | doi = 10.1371/journal.pgen.1000010 | pmid = 18454198 | pmc = 2265484 | last1 = Eriksson | first1 = Jonas | last2 = Larson | first2 = Greger | last3 = Gunnarsson | first3 = Ulrika | last4 = Bed'hom | first4 = Bertrand | last5 = Tixier-Boichard | first5 = Michele | last6 = Strömstedt | first6 = Lina | last7 = Wright | first7 = Dominic | last8 = Vereijken | first8 = Addie | last9 = Randi | first9 = Ettore | last10 = Jensen | first10 = Per | last11 = Andersson | first11 = Leif | title = Identification of the yellow skin gene reveals a hybrid origin of the domestic chicken | pages = e1000010 | year = 2008 | journal = PLOS Genetics |volume=4 | issue=2 | doi-access = free }}</ref><ref name="Lawal"/>

Genomic studies estimate that the chicken was domesticated 8,000 years ago in [[Southeast Asia]]<ref name="Lawal" /> and spread to China and India 2000–3000 years later. Archaeological evidence supports domestic chickens in Southeast Asia well before 6000 BC, China by 6000 BC and India by 2000 BC.<ref name="Lawal" /><ref>{{cite journal |last1=West |first1=B. |last2=Zhou |first2=B.X. |year=1988 |title=Did chickens go north? New evidence for domestication |journal=J. Archaeol. Sci. |volume=14 |issue= 5|pages=515–533|doi=10.1016/0305-4403(88)90080-5 |bibcode=1988JArSc..15..515W }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Al-Nasser |first1=A. |last2=Al-Khalaifa |first2=H. |last3=Al-Saffar |first3=A. |last4=Khalil |first4=F. |last5=Albahouh |first5=M. |last6=Ragheb |first6=G. |last7=Al-Haddad |first7=A. |last8=Mashaly |first8=M. |title=Overview of chicken taxonomy and domestication |journal=World's Poultry Science Journal |date=1 June 2007 |volume=63 |issue=2 |pages=285–300 |doi=10.1017/S004393390700147X |s2cid=86734013 }}</ref> A landmark 2020 Nature study that fully sequenced 863 chickens across the world suggests that all domestic chickens originate from a single domestication event of red junglefowl whose present-day distribution is predominantly in southwestern China, northern Thailand and Myanmar. These domesticated chickens spread across Southeast and South Asia where they interbred with local wild species of junglefowl, forming genetically and geographically distinct groups. Analysis of the most popular commercial breed shows that the White Leghorn breed possesses a mosaic of divergent ancestries inherited from subspecies of red junglefowl.<ref>{{cite journal |title=863 genomes reveal the origin and domestication of chicken |year=2020|doi=10.1038/s41422-020-0349-y|s2cid=220050312|last1=Wang|first1=Ming-Shan|last2=Thakur|first2=Mukesh|last3=Peng|first3=Min-Sheng|last4=Jiang|first4=Yu|last5=Frantz|first5=Laurent Alain François|last6=Li|first6=Ming|last7=Zhang|first7=Jin-Jin|last8=Wang|first8=Sheng|last9=Peters|first9=Joris|last10=Otecko|first10=Newton Otieno|last11=Suwannapoom|first11=Chatmongkon|last12=Guo|first12=Xing|last13=Zheng|first13=Zhu-Qing|last14=Esmailizadeh|first14=Ali|last15=Hirimuthugoda|first15=Nalini Yasoda|last16=Ashari|first16=Hidayat|last17=Suladari|first17=Sri|last18=Zein|first18=Moch Syamsul Arifin|last19=Kusza|first19=Szilvia|last20=Sohrabi|first20=Saeed|last21=Kharrati-Koopaee|first21=Hamed|last22=Shen|first22=Quan-Kuan|last23=Zeng|first23=Lin|last24=Yang|first24=Min-Min|last25=Wu|first25=Ya-Jiang|last26=Yang|first26=Xing-Yan|last27=Lu|first27=Xue-Mei|last28=Jia|first28=Xin-Zheng|last29=Nie|first29=Qing-Hua|last30=Lamont|first30=Susan Joy|journal=Cell Research|volume=30|issue=8|pages=693–701|pmid=32581344|pmc=7395088|display-authors=1}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Liu |first1=Yi-Ping |last2=Wu |first2=Gui-Sheng |last3=Yao |first3=Yong-Gang |last4=Miao |first4=Yong-Wang |last5=Luikart |first5=Gordon |last6=Baig |first6=Mumtaz |last7=Beja-Pereira |first7=Albano |last8=Ding |first8=Zhao-Li |last9=Palanichamy |first9=Malliya Gounder |last10=Zhang |first10=Ya-Ping |title=Multiple maternal origins of chickens: Out of the Asian jungles |journal=Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution |date=January 2006 |volume=38 |issue=1 |pages=12–19 |doi=10.1016/j.ympev.2005.09.014 |pmid=16275023 |bibcode=2006MolPE..38...12L }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Zeder |first1=Melinda A. |last2=Emshwiller |first2=Eve |last3=Smith |first3=Bruce D. |last4=Bradley |first4=Daniel G. |title=Documenting domestication: the intersection of genetics and archaeology |journal=Trends in Genetics |date=March 2006 |volume=22 |issue=3 |pages=139–155 |doi=10.1016/j.tig.2006.01.007 |pmid=16458995 }}</ref>

Chickens were one of the [[Domesticated plants and animals of Austronesia|domesticated animals]] carried with the sea-borne [[Austronesian peoples|Austronesian migrations]] into [[Taiwan]], [[Island Southeast Asia]], [[Island Melanesia]], [[Madagascar]], and the [[Pacific Islands]]; starting from around 3500 to 2500 BC.<ref name="Piper">{{cite book|first1=Philip J. |last1=Piper|editor1-first=Philip J. |editor1-last=Piper |editor2-first=Hirofumi |editor2-last=Matsumura |editor3-first=David |editor3-last=Bulbeck|title =New Perspectives in Southeast Asian and Pacific Prehistory|chapter =The Origins and Arrival of the Earliest Domestic Animals in Mainland and Island Southeast Asia: A Developing Story of Complexity|publisher =ANU Press|volume=45|series =terra australis|year =2017|isbn =9781760460945|chapter-url =http://press-files.anu.edu.au/downloads/press/n2320/html/ch15.xhtml}}</ref><ref name="Blust2002">{{cite journal |last1=Blust |first1=Robert |title=The History of Faunal Terms in Austronesian Languages |journal=Oceanic Linguistics |date=June 2002 |volume=41 |issue=1 |pages=89–139 |doi=10.2307/3623329 |jstor=3623329 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3623329}}</ref>

By 2000 BC, chickens seem to have reached the [[Indus Valley]] and 250 years later, they arrived in Egypt. They were still used for fighting and were regarded as symbols of fertility. The Romans used them in [[divination]], and the Egyptians made a breakthrough when they learned the difficult technique of artificial [[Egg incubation|incubation]].<ref>{{cite news |title=How the Chicken Conquered the World |author1=Adler, Jerry |author2=Lawler, Andrew |url=http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-the-chicken-conquered-the-world-87583657/?no-ist |newspaper=Smithsonian Magazine |date=June 1, 2012 |access-date=April 14, 2014}}</ref> Since then, the keeping of chickens has spread around the world for the production of food with the domestic fowl being a valuable source of both eggs and meat.<ref>{{cite journal |author1=Storey, A. A. |author2=Athens, J. S. |author3=Bryant, D. |author4=Carson, M. |author5=Emery, K. |year=2012 |title=Investigating the global dispersal of chickens in prehistory using ancient mitochondrial DNA signatures |journal=PLOS ONE |volume=7 |issue=7 |pages=e39171 |doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0039171 |display-authors=etal |pmid=22848352 |pmc=3405094|bibcode=2012PLoSO...739171S |doi-access=free }}</ref>

Since their domestication, a large number of breeds of chickens have been established, but with the exception of the [[Leghorn (chicken)|white Leghorn]], most commercial birds are of [[Hybrid (biology)|hybrid]] origin.<ref name=Card>{{cite book |title=Poultry Production |last=Card |first=Leslie E. |year=1961 |publisher=Lea & Febiger |isbn=978-0-8121-1241-2 |url=http://www.cabdirect.org/abstracts/19610102428.html }}</ref> In about 1800, chickens began to be kept on a larger scale, and modern high-output poultry farms were present in the United Kingdom from around 1920 and became established in the United States soon after the [[World War II|Second World War]]. By the mid-20th century, the [[poultry industry|poultry meat-producing industry]] was of greater importance than the egg-laying industry. Poultry breeding has produced breeds and strains to fulfil different needs; light-framed, egg-laying birds that can produce 300 eggs a year; fast-growing, fleshy birds destined for consumption at a young age, and utility birds which produce both an acceptable number of eggs and a well-fleshed carcase. Male birds are unwanted in the egg-laying industry and can often be identified as soon as they are hatch for subsequent culling. In meat breeds, these birds are sometimes castrated (often chemically) to prevent aggression.<ref name=Britannica/> The resulting bird, called a [[capon]], has more tender and flavorful meat, as well.<ref name="Basley">{{cite book |title=Western poultry book |publisher=Mrs. A. Basley |author=Mrs A Basley |year=1910 |url=https://archive.org/details/westernpoultrybo00basl_0 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/westernpoultrybo00basl_0/page/112 112]–15 }}</ref>
[[File:Cockfight Santangelo MAN Napoli.jpg|thumb|right|Roman mosaic depicting a cockfight]]
A [[Bantam (poultry)|bantam]] is a small variety of domestic chicken, either a miniature version of a member of a standard [[breed]], or a "true bantam" with no larger counterpart. The name derives from the town of [[Banten (town)|Bantam]] in Java<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=bantam&allowed_in_frame=0 |title=Online Etymology Dictionary |publisher=Etymonline.com |access-date=February 21, 2014}}</ref> where European sailors bought the local small chickens for their shipboard supplies. Bantams may be a quarter to a third of the size of standard birds and lay similarly small eggs. They are kept by small-holders and hobbyists for egg production, use as broody hens, ornamental purposes, and showing.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.poultryclub.org/breed-gallery/ |title=Breed gallery |publisher=The Poultry Club of Great Britain |access-date=February 21, 2014}}</ref>

===Cockfighting===
[[Cockfight]]ing is said to be the world's oldest spectator sport. Two mature males (cocks or roosters) are set to fight each other, and will do so with great vigour until one is critically injured or killed. Cockfighting is extremely widespread in [[Island Southeast Asia]], and often had ritual significance in addition to being a gambling sport.<ref name="Blust2002"/> They also formed part of the cultures of ancient India, China, Persia, Greece, Rome, and large sums were won or lost depending on the outcome of an encounter. Breeds such as the [[Asil (chicken)|Aseel]] were developed in the Indian subcontinent for their aggressive behaviour.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.aseellovers.20m.com/custom.html |title=History of Aseel |author=Nadeem Ullah |access-date=February 15, 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140227163240/http://www.aseellovers.20m.com/custom.html |archive-date=February 27, 2014 }}</ref> Cockfighting has been banned in many countries during the last century on the grounds of cruelty to animals.<ref name=Britannica/>