Scientists celebrate 50 years of chickens
Canadian scientists recently threw a 50th birthday party for chickens – predecessors to the broilers eaten today. No actual chickens were in attendance. Instead, the scientists were celebrating 50 years of preserving a group of chickens’ genetic diversity.
Earth & Sky spoke with Doug Korver at the University of Alberta. He said that in 1957, when the poultry industry was starting to change from a backyard operation to a large commercial operation, Canadian geneticists realized that chickens – as they existed in 1957 – were destined to change. So they decided to take a group of about 200 broiler chickens and allow them to breed randomly into the future. The descendants of those 1957 chickens are still being maintained in Canada today.
One reason is to see how far chickens have come from 1957. Back then, it took a broiler chicken 84 days to weigh two kilograms, and 50 years later, it takes 37 days. That’s two and a half times as fast.
Poultry breeding companies have taken over the evolution of their flocks, and they select for birds that can grow faster. And as certain traits are chosen over and over, genetic diversity is reduced. But randomly bred birds are still as diverse as they were in 1957. The interesting part is that someday scientists may need to use those genes if disease threatens modern chickens.
that’s cool. thanks for the interesting article : )