Jul 16, 2019 04:28 PM
Long live the long-limbed African chicken
https://source.wustl.edu/2019/07/long-li...n-chicken/
EXCERPT: . . . For generations, household farmers in the Horn of Africa have selectively chosen chickens with certain traits that make them more appealing. Some choices are driven by the farmers' traditional courtship rituals; others are guided by more mundane concerns, such as taste and disease resistance. The result is the development of a genetically distinct African chicken -- one with longer, meatier legs, according to new Washington University in St. Louis research published in the International Journal of Osteoarchaeology. But that 3,000-year-old local breed type is threatened by the introduction of commercial cluckers.
This study contains the first metrical baselines of chickens with known history in the region, and it reveals much about the history of the selection process and African poultry development, said Helina S. Woldekiros, assistant professor of anthropology in Arts & Sciences. For this new work conducted in collaboration with [other] researchers ... returned to a community in northern Ethiopia near where she previously discovered some of the oldest known physical evidence for the introduction of domesticated chickens to the continent of Africa.
[...] In addition to the earliest domestic chickens in Africa and today's African local chicken breeds, the study includes the red junglefowl -- a wild chicken found only in Asia -- using bones from a collection curated at the Natural History Museum at Tring, England, northwest of London.
By comparing measurements from these three types of chickens, Woldekiros collaborated with her colleagues from the U.K. to identify key differences that provide insight into African poultry development over the centuries. "African farmers were selecting for longer limbs," Woldekiros said. "They were looking for more meaty legs, rather than meaty wings. There was a big change in the length of the legs." The earliest domesticated chickens, dating from 800 BCE to 400 BCE, were also much closer total body size to today's red junglefowl than to the modern household chicken.
[...] "Right now, exotic and commercial chickens are being introduced to Africa, and local African breed types are in danger," Woldekiros said. "They are more biologically diverse than the exotic or commercial birds," she said. "Now we are in danger of losing that diversity."
The new chickens might be more productive -- but it comes at a cost. "The problem with the new chickens, even though they produce more meat and more eggs, is that they're really expensive to keep," she said. "You need to build a shelter for them, so they can't scavenge like local birds. And they're very sensitive to disease." (MORE)
https://source.wustl.edu/2019/07/long-li...n-chicken/
EXCERPT: . . . For generations, household farmers in the Horn of Africa have selectively chosen chickens with certain traits that make them more appealing. Some choices are driven by the farmers' traditional courtship rituals; others are guided by more mundane concerns, such as taste and disease resistance. The result is the development of a genetically distinct African chicken -- one with longer, meatier legs, according to new Washington University in St. Louis research published in the International Journal of Osteoarchaeology. But that 3,000-year-old local breed type is threatened by the introduction of commercial cluckers.
This study contains the first metrical baselines of chickens with known history in the region, and it reveals much about the history of the selection process and African poultry development, said Helina S. Woldekiros, assistant professor of anthropology in Arts & Sciences. For this new work conducted in collaboration with [other] researchers ... returned to a community in northern Ethiopia near where she previously discovered some of the oldest known physical evidence for the introduction of domesticated chickens to the continent of Africa.
[...] In addition to the earliest domestic chickens in Africa and today's African local chicken breeds, the study includes the red junglefowl -- a wild chicken found only in Asia -- using bones from a collection curated at the Natural History Museum at Tring, England, northwest of London.
By comparing measurements from these three types of chickens, Woldekiros collaborated with her colleagues from the U.K. to identify key differences that provide insight into African poultry development over the centuries. "African farmers were selecting for longer limbs," Woldekiros said. "They were looking for more meaty legs, rather than meaty wings. There was a big change in the length of the legs." The earliest domesticated chickens, dating from 800 BCE to 400 BCE, were also much closer total body size to today's red junglefowl than to the modern household chicken.
[...] "Right now, exotic and commercial chickens are being introduced to Africa, and local African breed types are in danger," Woldekiros said. "They are more biologically diverse than the exotic or commercial birds," she said. "Now we are in danger of losing that diversity."
The new chickens might be more productive -- but it comes at a cost. "The problem with the new chickens, even though they produce more meat and more eggs, is that they're really expensive to keep," she said. "You need to build a shelter for them, so they can't scavenge like local birds. And they're very sensitive to disease." (MORE)